African Colonialism

Having taken African Politics last semester I was excited to delve deeper into the history of the continent this semester. I was thankful to have some general knowledge of the continent going into the class because we covered a lot of material that expanded upon what I already knew and provided a plethora of new information for me to digest. Out of all the material that our class covered this semester the three events that resonated with me the most were the independence of Ethiopia, “legitimate” commerce, and the role of missionaries in the colonialism of Africa.
Learning about Ethiopia and how it maintained its independence during a time when the rest of the African continent was being colonialized implanted itself in my memory throughout the semester. It was interesting to learn about what made Ethiopia different and how it was able to stay independent when so many other great nations were taken advantage of. Menelik was an important leader of Ethiopia and played a large role in modernizing and industrializing the country. Ethiopia’s ability to modernize as Europe was allowed the country to hold its own against potential European invaders. The country was able to solidify its independence stance for good when it defeated the Italians in the Adwa battle. I think that learning about Ethiopia’s independence resonated with me so much because it was so unusual compared to surrounding African nations and it was a nice change to learn about a group of people that were able to stand up against European colonizers and win. The idea of legitimate commerce appeared to be the most stressed concept throughout the class. If I remember one thing from this class, like arbitrary boundaries from African Politics, I will remember “legitimate” commerce. Most Americans have a general elementary understanding of the slave trade, but what happened after the slave trade ended is not known by many people, including myself at the start of the course. Europeans did not suddenly stop the slave trade and start doing wonderful things on the continent. They switched from the trading of humans to the market of cash crops. While this ended the international slave trade, it did not end slavery on the continent. Many Africans were forced to work and produce cash crops to support Europeans desire for trade and wealth. Europeans …show more content…
Before this class I had a pretty positive image of missionaries in Africa. When most people think of missionaries, they do not usually think of the negative affects they bring to the area in which they are working. Missionaries greatly impacted the African continent during colonialism. They brought with them European religion, education, and culture. While their intentions might have been good, they severely impact African culture and changed their way of life forever. Another negative affect of missionaries in Africa is that they set the theme globally that “Africa needed to be improved”. This added to the creation of many stereotypes, prejudice, and racist thought that Africans are less than other groups of people and sadly some of these thoughts perpetuate in today’s society. Having been on a medical and religious mission trip to Africa, studying this struck a cord with me. It has made me evaluate the type of work I have done on the continent in the past and will make me more cautious with work I chose to do in the