Part 3: The Slave Trade, Colonialism and Independence
Sep 15 (M) - The Slave Trade
- Contrast the three categories of slaves in Igbo society by a) how they became slaves, b) their roles, c) rights, d) status and e) manumition
- Describe the overall slave trade, including a) where it occurred b) the time-frame, relative height of the trade, and why it ended c) the general role of Africans/Europeans in the system, and why
- Describe the delivery system, differentiating three major players: slave trading states, slave trading merchants, and the unstructured trade system. Use Equiano to illustrate the latter
- Use the Asante to illustrate how the slave trade could turn a society from kin to tribute
- Argue the point, with evidence, that African traders were more powerful that Europeans in the slave trade
- Provide supportive and disputative evidence for each of the three interpretations of the impact of the slave trade on Africa: little / non-transformative, significantly negative transformative, and significantly positive / non-negative transformative.
- Comment on how the Roots and Amistad films portray the slave trade
Sep 17 (W) - The Scramble for Africa
- Identify time frame of the Slave Trade, Age of Exploration, Scramble for Africa and Colonialism,
- Describe political-economic activities in West Africa during the Age of Exploration, and why Europeans wanted to establish control
- Describe political-economic activities in Central to East Africa during the Age of Exploration, and why Europeans wanted to establish control
- Explain what happened at the Berlin Conference to govern how the Scramble for Africa proceeded
- Describe 3-4 methods used by Europeans to gain control of the African Continent
- Identify on a map the major paths of infiltration by the British, French, Germans, Belgians and Portuguese
- Describe more broadly how Europeans justified their Scramble for Africa
- Explain 2-3 reasons why Africa was weak in its resistance to European Advancement
- Identify/juxtapose the time frame of South Africa’s particular experience, including: European colonization, the Great Trek, and the Boer War
- Identify where and why Europeans initially colonized South Africa
- Explain what initiated the Great Trek, and identify where the Boers established their own states
- Explain what spurred British interest in controlling Trekker-controlled area
- Use Leopold's ghost to describe the institutional framework of a concession, the resources that Europeans sought, their extractive methods, and their treatment of Africans
Sep 22 (M) - The Colonial Experience I
- Identify the colonial power over each nation by 1920
- Contrast ideologies and perspectives on African Institutions behind Indirect Rule and behind Association
- Compare them by delineation of territorial boundaries, appointment of chiefs, rule of law
- Explain why Indirect Rule would face particular difficulties with each of these three issues
- Compare them by culture, language and the role of the African elite
- Compare Company Rule with State-run Colonialism
- Describe how social distance between colonizer and colonized was assured
- Identify on a map the four main resource extraction zones: 1) Zone of concessions, 2) Zone of mineral extraction, 3) Zone of European settlement and cash crops; 4) Zone of African cash crops
- Use King Leopold's Ghost to illustrate how Europeans compelled Africans to participate in Zone 1
- Describe three ways Europeans compelled Africans to participate in the market and mining economies (in Zones 2 and 4)
- In the mining sector (Zone 2), explain why Africans never became typical "proletariat" workers
- Describe 2-3 ways in which labor provision areas within each zone suffered under colonialism
Sep 24 (W) - The Colonial Experience II: The Kenyan Case
- Use the Kenya case to illustrate colonial rule in the European settlement areas, highlighting:
a. How whites took the land, and the racial division of the landscape that developed
b. How Africans were treated on the European’s land (their rights and obligations)
c. How most Africans were eventually removed from the European’s land
d. How Africans were treated in their Native Reserves
- Describe 1-2 other colonial policies that provoked rebellion
- Describe the three African political “parties” that developed at this time, contrasting their leaders, the populations they represented and their main goals
In Afrique, Je te plumerai
- Teno goes to great pains to illustrate the lack of Cameroonian books available in Cameroon. Explain why he thinks that it is so important that Cameroon publish its own books
- Teno shows that Cameroon has both writers and book publishers. Explain why, then, Cameroon lacks Cameroonian books
- Describe 2-3 events in colonial history that illustrate Cameroon’s surrender of cultural/social identity and pride (not economic or political power - although they are related) to France
- Although Teno does not make his argument completely obvious (it helps to see the film more than once), explain why Cameroon has failed to recover its identity since independence
Sep 29 (M) - The Colonial Experience III: Gender and Colonialism's Legacy
- Explain how women, as individuals, fit within Ibo political organization and why they were subordinate
- Identify the two types of women’s groups, and provide 2-3 examples of issues they took on
- Describe how women enforced their power over individual men and over men as a group
- Clarify how Colonialism/Indirect Rule in Igboland undermined women in particular
- Identify what women demanded in the “Women's War”
- From the Dancing Women episode, provide an example of how women’s concerns were misunderstood
- Describe British authorities’ and missionaries’ conceptions of women, and how each contributed to their loss of political power
- Provide 3 examples each of the overall positive and negative impacts of colonialism