Colonialism - Africa - Colonialism In African History, The Nature Of The Colonial Encounter, The Bifurcated Colonial State, Dependent Colonial Capitalism
postcolonial nationalist paradigms ideologies
Conceptions and characterizations of colonialism vary considerably among scholars of Africa. Differences and debates center on four sets of interrelated issues: first, the place and importance of the colonial period in African history; second, the nature of the colonial encounter and its driving force; third, the typologies of African colonialism; and fourth, the legacies of colonialism for postcolonial Africa. These questions have been addressed from a wide variety of disciplinary and analytical traditions. In general, the historiography of colonialism in Africa has been dominated at different moments by four paradigms: the imperialist, nationalist, radical, and postcolonial.
Imperialist approaches, which prevailed in the early twentieth century, emphasized the civilizing mission and impact of colonialism. Critiques against this tradition, combined with nationalist struggles that led to decolonization, culminated in the rise of nationalist historiography, which emphasized African activities and agency. From the 1970s, influenced by a growing sense of pessimism about the developmental and democratic capacities of the postcolonial state and the rise of militant ideologies and social movements, "radical" approaches emerged, centered on dependency and Marxist ideas that highlighted the economic depredations and effects of colonialism. In the 1990s, following the demise of socialist regimes and ideologies and the spread of poststructuralism and postmodernism, postcolonial perspectives were increasingly used to reinterpret the cultural and discursive dynamics and complexities of colonialism. Additional paradigms on colonialism arose, most critically those informed by feminist and environmental studies, which stress the role of gender and ecology in the construction of colonial identities, societies, and political economies.
Additional Topics
Imperialist and nationalist historiographies represent almost diametrically opposed views of the place and impact of colonialism in African history, with one regarding it as a decisive moment, the other, as a parenthesis. To the imperialists, colonialism in fact brought Africa into history, for in their view, Africa "proper," to use Hegel's moniker—from which North Afri…
Colonialism in Africa entailed an encounter between the continent and Europe. This encounter encompassed multiple spheres (from politics, economy, and culture to sexuality, psychology, and representations), spatial scales (from local and individual colonial territories to subregions and the continent as a whole), and social groups and inscriptions (from the colonizers and colonized to class, gende…
Studies on colonialism as politics and the politics of colonialism have tended to focus on two main issues: the nature of the colonial state and African resistance. Discussion and debate on the colonial state have centered on its specificities and construction, how to classify African colonial states and administrations, the dynamics of colonial power and civil society, and the demise or reconstit…
To many scholars, economics, not politics, is central to the colonial project. In the 1970s systematic studies began to appear on African colonial economies. Three dominant approaches emerged. The first was rooted in neoclassical economic theory and focused largely on market processes and the problems of resource allocation. Anthony Hopkins has provided the most famous neoclassical treatment of Af…
A key challenge in analyzing African colonial economies, as with other spheres of colonialism, is their sheer diversity. The temporal division between precolonial and colonial economies and polities and their spatial development during the colonial period were manifested quite unevenly. The growth and structure of colonial economies, for example, were determined by the level of development of the …
The pluralist approach was widely applied by social anthropologies to explain many other African colonial societies, which were depicted as "plural societies" in which different ethnic groups and races lived in close proximity; colonial social change was attributed to "culture contact" and "acculturation." To the pluralists, colonialism provided an arena f…
Many of the approaches used to analyze African colonial politics, economies, societies, and cultures were often gender-blind and tended to ignore women's lives, experiences, contributions, voices, perceptions, representations, and struggles. This began to change following the rise of the feminist movement, which emerged out of both localized and transnational trajectories and intellectual a…
Conceptions and analyses of colonialism in Africa have been affected quite considerably by how the demise of colonialism is understood. This in turn has centered on how two processes are examined—namely, decolonization, and African nationalism or
resistance—and the connections between the two. Nationalist historians contend that nationalism was primarily responsible for the dismantl…
Ajayi, J. F. Ade. "The Continuity of African Institutions under Colonialism." In Emerging Themes of African History: Proceedings, edited by T. O. Ranger, 189–200. Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishing House, 1968. Allman, Jean, Susan Geiger, and Nakanyike Musisi, eds. Women in African Colonial Histories. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. Amadiume, Ifi. Male Daught…
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User Comments
3 months ago
Juliet Chiradza
colonialism uprooted all African values.It was evil through and through
3 months ago
Juliet Chiradza
colonialism uprooted all African values.It was evil through and through
3 months ago
Juliet Chiradza
colonialism uprooted all African values.It was evil through and through
3 months ago
Juliet Chiradza
colonialism uprooted all African values.It was evil through and through
3 months ago
Juliet Chiradza
colonialism uprooted all African values.It was evil through and through
3 months ago
Juliet Chiradza
colonialism uprooted all African values.It was evil through and through
3 months ago
Juliet Chiradza
colonialism uprooted all African values.It was evil through and through
3 months ago
Juliet Chiradza
colonialism uprooted all African values.It was evil through and through
4 months ago
Indeed Africa was collonized,but historigraphy is a weak link.Also indeed how many men are looking in the past of Africa for their rights and freedom.Is oine loooking for only that;or so it is with the essay.
5 months ago
From what we've read and heard from our elders, colonialism is violent in nature. violence was used to introduce it. the same violence was uesd to consolidate it in Africa.
about 1 year ago
I am a female college student, I am a returning college student. I am also older and have raised a family and I am now a grandmother to a 1 month old baby boy. I am hopeful that I will be able t achieve my dream of obtaining a Bachelor's Degree in Writing/Communications. I find that it is still critical that women explore their options, as they are frequently viewed as the "weaker sex."
Even though so much has changed in the face of the "The Women's Liberation Movement," there are still many many women that see a different face. A face of anger, a danger at how they can dare to change the pertruding face of fear, dare to see the challenges and dare to say no, to their biggest demon. Poverty amongst people and family members are still prevalent in todays times. Many many women are back in school to make better life style choices, but are also older. How will that knowledge apply to their inner santucm, where their fear lives and fear drives away their ability to imangine?
about 1 year ago
mohamed nuuh dheere
This article proposes an historically oriented typology of contemporary African political systems: the polyarchic, the socialist, the civil-authoritarian, and the praetorian. Their performance after independence is evaluated then in terms of Gross National Product (GNP) per capita growth, improvements in the “physical quality of life,” indicators of “dependence,” and normative standards. Closer analysis reveals a differentiated pattern that contradicts many commonly held assumptions concerning the developmental advantages of (civil or military) authoritarian rule in Third World countries. Thus polyarchic systems fare quite well both in terms of GNP growth and the improvement of the basic quality of life. They also have the best record concerning normative standards (protection of civil liberties and freedom from political repression). Socialist systems show a poorer performance in terms of economic growth, but have a good record in improving the living conditions of a larger part of the population, especially in the fields of health and education. The civil-authoritarian states do well with respect to GNP per capita growth rates, but relatively little of this growth contributes to the improvement of basic living standards. Praetorian systems have the worst records in all regards. Dependence does not turn out to be a significant factor contributing to this differentiated pattern of performance.