Why colonialism was actually good for Africa – Part 1
By Michael Chishala
This article is not a “balanced” take on the good and bad of colonialism. There is already plenty written on the bad by many others and spoken about constantly in public discourse. I have chosen to focus on the benefits as that is where there is little critical debate and discussion which enables us have a holistic view. And for the record, this is not an endorsement of the terrible evils committed by the colonialists.
Did you know that it was the British Empire that was most instrumental in ending slavery in the whole world? Did you know that after they abolished slavery in their lands and colonies, the British sent ships out to sea to patrol the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the 19th century to catch and confiscate slave ships, punish the crew and free any slaves on board? Did you know that they captured hundreds of slave ships and freed tens of thousands of enslaved Africans?
And did you know that they pressured other major European powers that had African colonies (France, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Spain) to join them in the global fight against slavery? This history is seldom discussed nowadays. Now, you might be wondering what ending slavery has to do with colonialism. Let me explain.
Slavery was a global institution on every continent, culture, people, religion, tribe, race and ethnicity with very few exceptions. Contrary to the modern day picture of slavery (due to the distortions in the media and popular culture), blacks enslaved blacks, whites enslaved whites. Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Aztecs, Incas, Mayans, etc all had slaves. The Islamic Ottoman Empire (Turkey today) enslaved whites and in fact, the English word “slave” comes from the white European “Slavs” who became synonymous with the word because so many of them were enslaved.
Africa had thriving slave markets in places like modern day Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and others for centuries before Europeans ever showed up. Zanzibar was the biggest slave market on the African East coast until towards the end of the 19th century and it had to take the British to close it down via treaties accompanied by threats of force. It wasn’t white people running the Zanzibar slave market; it was black people. Black people went into the interior of Africa and captured men and women, marched them to the African East coast and sold them in Zanzibar. Or they bought them from African tribes that conquered other tribes.
The Arab slave trade which began in the 8th Century in Egypt after the Arab invasion from the Arabian desert went on for 700 years before the white man ever showed up. The Europeans were actually late to the slavery party, but they were far more organised so their 400 year participation in the brutal inhuman slave trade was very consequential as they bought about 12 million Africans. The Arabs took more slaves than this (up to 17 million by some estimates) and their slave trade lasted longer (over 1,200 years) than the European one.
But the internal African slave trade in empires like Mali, Songhai, Ashanti, Dahomey or Egypt was the most pervasive and according to historians, more black people were enslaved within Africa by fellow blacks than all the cross-continental slavery combined. Some estimates put the numbers at around 25 million Africans.
Arabs and Europeans joined existing slave markets and greatly expanded them. The picture of poor helpless Africans being captured by white slave traders, as portrayed in Alex Haley’s novel and TV series “Roots” is unfortunately a myth as 90% of all African slaves were captured and sold by fellow blacks. It was mainly the Portuguese who actively took part in slave raids, but this was just around 2% of the total with the rest coming due to wars, rebelllions, etc.
In the 17th century around the European Enlightenment period, some European Christians (mainly the Quakers) began to question the morality of slavery on both sides of the Atlantic and campaigned against it. They banned their members from having slaves and began to publicly lobby for the abolition of slavery. This coincided with the rapid growth of the power of European nations who advanced technologically to the point that they could cross the seas in advanced ships and conquer foreign lands with superior weapons.
The European powers were in competition to conquer and colonise foreign lands and they began to slowly defeat and take over African kingdoms who they had previously been content to do business with by selling them guns and ammunition in exchange for slaves. Hence the Berlin conference of 1884-85 at which they divided up Africa and agreed to stay out of each other’s way.
To be continued on Friday…
Michael Chishala is a Zambian analyst with interests in Philosophy, Law, Economics and History. Email: [email protected]
A well researched article. Looking forward to the next part
Colonialism’s original goal was to deprive colonised peoples of their land and natural resources for good, that is permanently, for the benefit of colonisers. How could such a system have been good for Africans? It was driven by the belief that colonisers were a superior race and they alone had the superior intelligence to put the land to good use. The colonialists had forgotten that they also had started out as hunter-gatherers with high levels of superstition, moving on to unelected and autocratic hereditary rulers, a murderous feudal period where ordinary people had no rights. Limited governments presiding over citizens with rights came much later and after much bloodshed. Why should a superior race start out like that?
This Chishala guy really has a halfbaked understanding of imperialism. He thinks Europe came to colonise Africa! He is mentally enslaved. Chishala, Just look at examples all over the world. Europe invaded all continents because the imperialists were out to exterminate all the other races and take over the planet. Christopher Columbus arrived in America and found plenty of native Americans. Where are these natives? Europe invaded and killed all Americans. Now Donald Trump is the native American! That’s what Chishala wants to justify.
Yes the Red Indians were exterminated. The native Australians and New Zealanders were invaded and exterminated. The Europeans then set out to exterminate the negroids and Asians. Chishala go and read Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe and you will see What saved Africans from extermination. The Mosquito! Europeans were dying in big numbers from Malaria when they tried to move from South Africa to the Equatorial region so they couldnt settle there.
Thats when the imperialist went into plan B. He opted for governing the colonies rather than invading them
Without colonialism so many of you commenting here including my old friend Nostradamus would be wizards
This was all learnt at school and if our education system was uptodate we would all be aware of went really went and not they want us to believe
An interesting and well perceived article. I look forward to reading the second part!
HH, you see what happens when you stop educating your children and start giving them free education without quality. Basendapo ubwafufu ba Chishala. There are so many bombs or untruths in your article its like you have been paid to write it by some Englishman and haters like Donald Trump. In my History class some smart Alec tried to bring up your argument. The lecturer asked him for facts to support his argument and like you, he could only use the ones arising from Western slavery I wont bother to point all your lies out but just a few: Its not the British that stopped slavery-ask the Republicans.
Africans didnt go out to enslave each other. They mostly had a punishment system where criminals and war prisoners were kept at the palace by the King and this is what you are mistaking for slavery. The “thriving“ slave markets you are referring to in Ghana etc, were established by the West. Africans did not raid each other for slaves until the Arabs and Europeans came dangling silverware and guns for their well established industry. Slavery was for 400 years a commercial venture that greatly enriched the West turning countries like the US, Portugal, Holland France and Britain into great economic powers. Alex Haley, wasnt a Historian and as admitted by himself was fictionalising from fact. Fyafula.
Indeed the Bemba fought the Ngoni not for slaves but for survival reasons and resources
If Africans did not enslave each other but had a punishment system, the there was a lot of crime in Africa. There was so much crime they found 12 million criminals among a bunch of peasants who had nothing better to do. What exactly were they stealing?
Only a f00l would embrace being enslaved and deprived of their identity. The fact that a foreign race tried to make you extinct for over 400 years is a test of your resilience not a privilege. If you knew the truth about your identity and the reasons you are targeted then you would reconsider on suggesting that there can be good colonialism. What you read in Zambia is not the same as what’s documented in the countries that carried out these heinous crimes.
What is a Zambian analyst?
One who analyzes Zambian cooking? Zambian marriages? Zambia police corruption? Zambian politics? Zambian fishing?
A Zambian analyst is an analyst who is a Zambian, as opposed to being Chinese.
One should read more, even though we Zambians are all analysts after a couple of beers. Britain ended slavery but hundreds of years before were the ones who first industrialised it. Zanzibar slave markets were run by Arabs rather than “blacks” as the author says.
LT has refused to allow me participate by continuously informing me that there is a Serious Error on their website.I hope this article will be posted on the Zambian Observer
MuZambian split your post into two parts and post them separately. I do that when I encounter that error
America was a British colony when it started slavery at the industrial level in the 16th century so yes Britain started slavery. Nearly all the slaveships were registered in Britain.
The author should come to Europe and do a documentary on imperialism and colonialism before giving a half baked opinion. Let him come to Europe with his crew and see if (a) they will let him in, and (b) give him access to information. This is Africa’s problem right here.
This is the stupidest most ignorant article I have ever read on the subject.How did the editors even let this one through? Anyway, freedom if whatever
Any Rubbish can be published nowadays
Master please that was nice!
Slap me again.
This was near to the truth. Fortunately Zambia was not involved in the slave trade.Yes , colonialism was rightly as an attempt tp enlarge empires. But there were good empires and bad ones. Zambia had a good one and became one of the first to be its own. I was a an A/I in the NRP.ZRP and when I chose to return to England I was emotionally surprised that my section men were to a man upset that I was leaving. They were good men,good policemen,honest and brave..In my section was a Zambian A/I who later became a commissioner of Police. We had done him well. I am now 83 and I still remamber my time ther. As a finishing note,I remember self and ,driver and 2 back up men parking up at the Victoria Falls carpark with soft drinks in hand watching the sun rise above the hills.
@MuZambian
It does happen but not recently
Thier algorithms are also outdated by puutting comments under moderation which are never attended to
I guess run by Zambians for Zambians so Expected
I see my last comments were edited out. So much for freedom of speech.
When you come with a statement like this, you really need to do some serious research. This is a half baked attempt to convince of what ?….that colonialism brought anything good !?!?
They destroyed your culture, they destroyed infrastructure. They killed every intellectual african, so they could suppress you. Even now we see the leftovers from the colonialism: Bad educational systems, exploiting your resources, supporting greed and corruption etc etc etc.
They are my great, great forefathers and im ashamed of them. Don’t try to justify what they have done. Nothing, absolutely nothing has been good about the colonialism