Created 02/03/2006 3:46 am
The white group which could have become most closely integrated
with Africa chose a destiny that made it the epitome of racism on
the continent. — The modern era of African history was
inaugurated by the discovery of diamonds at Kimberly and gold on
the Witwatersrand. Unimagined wealth awakened imperial dreams,
while the mines intensified labour demands and polarized racist
attitudes. Labour compounds and pass laws were just two aspects of
official racial segregation instituted under British rule during
the 1880s which established precedents for the apartheid laws
formalized by South Africa’s white government in the 1960’s. —
reka, reka. mona mtskeka (buy buy a gun)
Leopold II of Belgium started the European nations’ “scramble” for
territory in Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. While
France, Britain, Portugal, and Germany established colonies,
Leopold proclaimed himself King-Sovereign of the Congo Free
State. Rubber brought great wealth to Leopold and Belgium;
harvesting the crop inflicted terrible hardships upon the
Congolese. —
African leaders were not invited to attend the Berlin Conference
in 1884-85 at which Africa was carved out among the colonial
powers, nor were they consulted. The colonial history of the Lozi
people of western Zambia exemplifies the manner in which African
polities were taken up, manipulated and discarded to suit European
interests. —
whether by coincidence, convenience, or connivance
