Africa - Made Better or Worse by European Colonisation?

[Skullheadhq]

Slavery was abolished before the Scramble for Africa even started and hey, we brought them civilisation!

[AlexanderSextus]

i hope you are being sarcastic about "bringing them civilization" skullhead. Civilization by what standards? White standards?

[Skullheadhq]

i hope you are being sarcastic about "bringing them civilization" skullhead. Civilization by what standards? White standards?

Well, the standards of not eating insects, running naked with a spear in the hand behind some lions and eating fellow humans. At least we tried to civilise them and for a large part we succeeded.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Well, the standards of not eating insects, running naked with a spear in the hand behind some lions and eating fellow humans. At least we tried to civilise them and for a large part we succeeded.

You are treading a fine line here between sarcasm / racist stereotyping / downright insult. Very similar to what you did in the Polish history thread.


This thread will not devolve into a free-for-all bashfest. No defamatory remarks about Africans.

[Vladimir]

You are treading a fine line here between sarcasm / racist stereotyping / downright insult. Very similar to what you did in the Polish history thread.


This thread will not devolve into a free-for-all bashfest. No defamatory remarks about Africans.

Especially South Africans and their funny accents.

It's an interesting topic. It's fashionable to criticize colonialism but that assumes the new oppressors were worse than the old.

[gaelic cowboy]

Hmm

Was Africa made better by Euro colonisation? I suppose it depends on your definition of better.

What gets me is Europe has interacted with Africa for thousands of years, so why does the story in school only start with the British and there scrambling.

Hello Rome and Greece anyone

[Furunculus]

Hmm. Was Africa made better by Euro colonisation? I suppose it depends on your definition of better

Or to put it another way; was Africa made worse by Euro colonisation?
When Frederick Courtenay Selous was mounting expeditions northwards from south africa he quickly bumped into the Matabele and Mashona, the latter of whom lived in abject terror of regular decimation and slavery by the former. The Mashona were more than happy to see the brutality of the Matabele curbed. To put this in context, when I lived in Malawi in the 80's mothers still told their children to behave otherwise the Matabele would come for them........... one hundred years after their power had been broken by the British!

this is not a broad brush defence of colonisation in general, for the downsides were horrendous in some cases, but Belgium and Portugal were an order of magnitude worse in the treatment of their subject populations, and its not as is everything was sweetness and light before the British arrived.

the worst thing we did was create boundaries regardless of ethnic/tribal powerbases, sometimes as a method of divide and conquer. the result upon independence was a populace that recognised no community cohesion, and thus we are in significant ways responsible for the strife since independence.

[gaelic cowboy]

Especially South Africans and their funny accents.

It's an interesting topic. It's fashionable to criticize colonialism but that assumes the new oppressors were worse than the old.

Look at it from a different angle then I suppose.

People developed ways of living that suited there own environment, Europe changed that and the standard of living went down as a result.

[PershsNhpios]

Does the continent need to have been made better or worse? Is there a prize?

Is it really so black and white?

[Skullheadhq]

People developed ways of living that suited there own environment, Europe changed that and the standard of living went down as a result.

Many villages in Africa have never even seen colonists, it was mostly the coast so nothing went down.

You are treading a fine line here between sarcasm / racist stereotyping / downright insult. Very similar to what you did in the Polish history thread.


This thread will not devolve into a free-for-all bashfest. No defamatory remarks about Africans.

I guess I forgot about all those African (sub-Saharan) civilisations with their marvelous architecture, wonderful inventions and bright philosophers then, I'm sorry, I should have better educated myself

[Vladimir]

i hope you are being sarcastic about "bringing them civilization" skullhead. Civilization by what standards? White standards?