Colonialism and Africa Essay

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Andre Conway
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Debate Essay

"If it be friendship that you desire, then I am ready for it...but to be your subject, that I cannot be." The famous quote of Chief Machemba (letter to Herman Von Wissman), as he and his tribe resisted European conquest. As Europeans were taking over Africa there were mostly negative aspects of European imperialism.
Did you know that the reason imperialism in Africa started is that the European leaders thought they had rights over " inferior races " and have to right to "civilize" these people? .Did you know the worst atrocities in the world are still going in Africa while the west are making loads of money from it, and still exploiting poor Africans everyday?
Did you know that 90 % of the world's money is with only 5 % of the world population? Africa giving up resources for free? Did you know this whole thing started because of imperialism in Africa?

One reason why is the African people were being abused and missed treated. For example soldiers were cutting of the hands young children and women just so that they would not get in trouble for wasting bullets that is unfair and cruel. Another reason why imperialism had a negative affect on Africans was because it forced them to live in fear because they were being killed if they did not do enough manual labor. Those are not humane conditions for humans to live in so those are just some of the negative affects of imperialism on Africans.

Imperialism damaged Africa’s population because Arabic, which has a longer legacy in Africa, and later European colonialism, also enslaved many African inhabitants. Between 10 million and 15 million Africans were shipped as slaves to the Americas. Over 20 million made there way north in the Arabic trade slave, never to return to Africa. This is 30 million to 40 million people taken from Africa. This is an enormous intellectual and talent drain from the continent. The intellectual, creative and physical resources of those taken from Africa as slaves went to improve Arabic, European and American cultures and nations, not African cultures and nations. Africa has not recovered from the two external slave trades. (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc)

Imperialism left a negative affect on Africa because when the colonial powers left, they particularly the British -- paid little attention to ethnic rivalries across Africa. They drew lines on a map that put traditional enemies together in such proportions that made the nation difficult to rule except by a dictator. They drew lines on a map that separated tribes and ethnic groups between two or more nations, with the tribes wanting to be united under one nation. A lot of the conflict in Africa since the 1950s can be traced back to very poor decisions about national boundaries. Not only did Europeans fail to develop democratic institutions in Africa while they ruled the continent as colonizers, but they made democracy almost impossible by drawing unrealistic boundaries.
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