Abstract
The present study explored and mapped young Beninese people’s views regarding colonization. A sample of 63 students aged 18-20 and living in Cotonou, Benin were presented with 24 cards showing a story that depicted a colonization process and asked to assess each process using a response scale that ranged from “very negatively” to “rather positively”. Each story had four critical items of information: (a) the political/economic situation before colonization (e.g., the area was virtually stateless), (b) the colonial policy of the metropolis (e.g., pure exploitation of the colony’s riches and the building of a minimal infrastructure needed for easing exploitation), (c) the extent to which the average people’s standard of living and life expectancy increased during the colonial period, and (d) the level of brutality with which the colonizer’s rule was applied. Three qualitatively different positions were found: Always very negatively (4%), Undecidable (20%), and Depends on circumstances (74%). This majority position was that, even if colonization deprived African people of their right to self-determination, the colonizer’s action must be assessed taking into account the pros and the cons in each concrete situation. In other words, colonization was, in the case of Africa, not good or bad in itself. This view is in some way not that dissimilar from the one western Europeans may have today regarding past colonization by the Romans.
Highlights
The present study explored and mapped young Beninese people’s views regarding colonization
The present study was aimed at exploring and mapping young Beninese people’s views regarding colonization: To what extent and under which circumstances can the balance sheet of a particular colonization process be considered as globally positive or negative? Colonization is the process by which a group of people or a country – usually but not necessarily a powerful group or country – sends people outside its usual borders either to definitely settle there and cultivate the land, or to first assess and exploit the riches that can be found in these places (Young, 2015)
When the areas where colonizers decide to settle are virgin--that is, when nobody has lived there before--colonization does not pose any moral problem. When these places have already been settled by other people, moral problems inevitably arise because colonizers are apt to violate each of the four principles of good conduct in human affairs: Respect for autonomy, justice, non-maleficence, and beneficence
Summary
Participants were 63 students (49% females) aged 18-20 and living in Cotonou, Benin They were contacted in the university campus and in high schools. An example of a scenario was the following: “The republic of Malevia colonized part of Africa 150 years ago. In this part of Africa there was no political organization; the area was virtually stateless. Malevia did more than just exploit the agricultural, forestry, and mineral riches of their colony They built much of the infrastructure needed for the economic development of the colony (roads, railways, bridges, warehouses, rural health centers, and hospitals). How do you assess the colonizer’s actions?” Participants rated each scenario using an elevenpoint scale (0-10) ranging from very negatively on the left to rather positively on the right
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