Pre-colonial Africa:
composed of kingdoms/ Empires dating back to the time of the Egyptian civilization if not earlier.The Nubian and the Aksumite Empire were the probably the first known kingdoms of nappy haired black men and women trading and forming strong ties across the ancient world .
some pre-colonial African kingdoms includes ; The Kongo kingdom, Songhai Empire, Ghana Empire, Aksumite Empire, Oyo Empire, kingdom of Linda, Ashanti Empire and so on.
Note: pre- colonial Africa is the term used to describe the time prior the European colonization of Africa .
Before colonialism the relationship of Africans with the rest of the world was based on trade , Africans used to trade ivory, gold, medicine and so on across the ancient world . Regardless of what is known in popular culture or history, pre- colonial Africa consisted of kingdoms with standard hierarchies, the feudal system was used by the Aksumites centuries before the Europeans , they had provinces across the red sea and feudalism was the system used to secure their sovereignty. Pre-colonial Africa can also be credited with human cognitive developments and the origin of social behavior ( including the institution of family, rituals and advances in tools, technologies ranging from stones to metals). Pre-colonial Africa is also the birth place of proper agriculture, subsistence and commercial farming ,most of Africa's oldest civilizations were built across the fertile sea deposits of the River Nile like the Axum kingdom ,Adulis, Nubian kingdom and the most popular of them all Egypt.
The fossils of pre-colonial political, social and religious institutions are therefore the foundation on the medieval world was built. Although , colonial invaders burnt, stole and buried most of this history , there are cultural and religious factors upheld by the descendants of pre-colonial Africans gives oxygen to the flames of what the past was. Historical monuments built by pre-colonial Africans can still be seen today in Egypt, Axum, oyo, Benin, Zaria ,ile- lfe, Ethiopia and so on , stolen artifacts and written history of pre-colonial Africa can also be found in museums across Europe like in England, France and so on.
Note: The great Punic war ,where Hannibal stood against the Romans in Carthage ( Tunisia today) .
Colonial Africa:
African slave trade gained normalcy between the 16th and 19th century, European merchants started to increase their sale of Africans as slaves across the ocean by the beginning of the 17th century European monarchs began to join in on this trade, they also discovered the riches and wealth secreted by African soil. They invented an indirect method of ruling by seducing kings , warlords and black slave traders with money , weapons and advance technologies ,but the system was inadequate they kept crossing nerves , a village can be paying tributes in forms of slaves ,gold, diamond e.t.c to two European monarchs hence the Scramble for Africa.
Note: Colonial Africa refers to the period Africans spent under foreign rule. The best way to define colonialism is " the policy of acquiring full( like in the case of Africa) or partial political control over another state pr country , occupying it and exploiting it economically.
In 1884, European great powers at a conference in Berlin divided Africa between themselves as their sovereign colonies. Germany, Italy, France,Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Great Britain at the conference began what we know as " the scramble for Africa". The idea of colonialism at the time was define to be aimed at the promotion of modernization, spread of Christianity, teach western form of education , but the colonial era was ransacked with Afro- genocides ( for example the Herero genocide in Namibia ), economically exploitation and intense slavery . Colonialism did more harm than good, from the right perspective it is obvious that western industrialization was a derivative of African exploitation which is still going on today, like the blood diamond of Sierra Leone or the cobalt in Congo or the crude oil deposit in Nigeria and Cameroon.
Note: it also gave room for the experimentation of the idea "democracy " , which so far has been a failed concept in Africa.
By the early 1900s much of Africa had already been occupied by European sovereignty, Africans were also resisting colonial authority as well; popular resistance like the Mau Mau of Kenya.
Nigeria, Belgian Congo, British Gold coast , German Tanganyika and so on are a few examples of the colonial tags used for African states during colonialism, while African states like Ethiopia, Morocco Tunisia, Algeria also repelled French, Italian and Spanish colonialism though with so many failed attempts Algiers(Algeria) was conquered in 1847. Liberia was the first colony established by returning slaves (free African-Americans)1822 .
Note: The negative impacts of colonialism; degradation of natural resources, capitalism, negative urbanization, introduction of foreign diseases to livestock and humans,degradation of African culture and languages .
During colonialism Africans were recruited to fight for their colonial masters in major European wars like the first and second world war.
Post- colonial Africa:
Colonialism lasted for about two generations between the 19th century and the early 20th century. At the end of the second world war in 1945 the number of Africans serving in the colonial army grew, the number of Africans studying overseas also grew. The Pan- African movement the not start in Africa , it started in Europe , Africans in Europe started to debate against colonial rule demanding independence.
Note: post-colonialism , the historical period or state of affairs representing the aftermath of the western colonialism. It basically refers to the era between the late 1950s and the 1970s, during which African nations gained political independence from colonial rules.
6 March 1957, Ghana( British Gold coast colony) gain independence becoming the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from colonial rule (led by Kwame Nkrumah). Gradually ,what was left of colonized sub-Saharan Africa began to gain independence as well, sadly these new born African states were unstable, riddled with civil wars, rebellions and genocides such as the Biafran war and the Liberian war .
Although the reason for this conflicts varied , some were against the system of government, some were against the right to rule , some were against the rule of the privileged minority like the Apartheid system in south Africa. In my opinion all the conflicts and political instability is as a result of the introduction of colonial imperialism and it is left in the hands of us Africans to fix this problems. The idea of poverty is a colonial one, it is absolutely foreign , the standard of living of Africans deteriorated at the arrival of the European if is unfortunate that it is still the same today. Over the years most African states has been ruled by dictators and totalitarian regimes , the countries with a democratic government are operating under a detrimental democratic government and that is post-colonial Africa. Post- colonial Africa has also given room to ridiculous religious wars, tribalism and all sorts of outrageous forms of conflicts based on the ideas left behind by the colonial masters.
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