Scramble For Africa Research Articles

African States since Independence: Order, Development, and Democracy by David Christensen and David D. Laitin

Reviewed by: African States since Independence: Order, Development, and Democracy by David Christensen and David D. Laitin Dawne Y. Curry African States since Independence: Order, Development, and Democracy. By david christensen and david d. laitin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. xix + 395 pp. ISBN 978-0-300-22661-4. $50.00 (hardcover). In this compelling monograph, Christensen and Laitin employ social science theory to chart the political and economic failures of post-independent sub-Saharan Africa, and to offer a prognosis for how the continent can shape a better future for its fifty-four nations. The book coalesces around this principal question: why have African colonial states not fulfilled their promise to deliver prosperity, good governance, and security? Christensen and Laitin make several assertions: African states failed to keep up with other members of the "underdeveloped world," and they did not fulfil the promises offered by independent Africa's charismatic leaders—Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Ahmed Sekou Touré (Guinea), Leopold Senghor (Senegal), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Patrice Lumumba (The Congo), and Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria). Sixteen chapters explore Africa's great expectations and unfulfilled dreams, its geography and historical constraints, its post-independence policies; and its visions for [End Page 186] a new era. Christiansen and Laitin chart the continent's progression from the optimistic mood at independence to the Afro-pessimism that enveloped African nations struggling to exist following the structural, and geographical imposition of colonialism. Their offering is not a sugar-coated explanation of historic events, financial, and political upheavals, and medical pandemics, but rather the authors portray Africa as an evolving continent whose promise still exists amid the challenges still waged from the wake and the aftermath of colonialism's ubiquitous presence, and hold. Christensen and Laitin begin this exploration with a brief biographical analysis of the aforementioned leaders to show how they each gained legitimacy. Nkrumah, Lumumba, Kenyatta and the others had to figure out how to win the people's trust. They became legitimate leaders through their western education, colonial-imposed incarceration, and their charismatic appeal. For example, Nkrumah became the continent's first-sub-Saharan nation to gain independence from a colonial power when Great Britain granted the west African nation its freedom in 1957. Nkrumah, who represented a member of an ethnic minority, gained mass appeal by donning Kente cloth, portraying himself as a simple man who could have a meal with villagers, and who visited them in his trademark Cadillac that people touched in reverence (p. 18). Touré differed from all of the other leaders. He chose not accept continued French support when his country, Guinea gained its independence in 1958. Considered a rebel, Touré portrayed himself as a descendant of the great anti-colonial figure Samory. The Guinean gained legitimization by inserting himself within a broader category of nation rather than through an ethnic group or by having an incarcerated past or western education (p. 24). As Christensen and Laitin illustrate, charisma did not lead African leaders and their constituencies to a promised land. Instead, the continent faced grave security, economic, and democratic issues. One of the reasons for these problems lies with the Berlin Conference and the partitioning of Africa in 1884 and 1885. Christensen and Laitin devise different theoretical categorizations to document how geography has played a role in the continent's formation, its evolution, but also in its underdevelopment, and isolation. Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and seven other nations represent difficult geographies because they have a rimland country separated by vast stretches of unpopulated lands (p. 116). The hinterland nations of Mali, Chad, Mauritania, and Niger have their economic, and political resources concentrated in their respective capitals of Bamako, N'djena, Nouakchott, and Niamey. The authors cite nineteen countries that have favorable political geographies. [End Page 187] Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, and others make this list because they "easily permit the projection of power from the capital city to the countryside" (pp. 119–120). The last category is neutral geographies. These nations do not fit these depictions: large countries with noncontinuous areas, high population densities, or the concentration of population in a small area or within the capital cities. Geography reveals other things. For instance...

Rich but poor South Africa : a philosophical excursion from colonialism to post-colonialism

The scramble for Africa immediately led to colonisation in Africa. When the colonialists took ownership, they changed people's mindsets and instilled in them an inferiority complex which made them despise themselves. Africa was divided into imagined states that became the economic and material property of the colonisers. Some African states ceded the land and inhabitants to the colonisers, making them foreigners in their place of birth. Relinquishing ownership of the land meant the colonisers appropriated the natural mineral resources which came with the land. To ensure total possession, the management of the resources was affected by the colonising power. From this historical fact, the paper examines how Africa was systematically impoverished and exploited economically. This paper further highlights how rich South Africa became poor South Africa by attaching the land and mineral resources by colonisers and how that led to its indebtedness. This indebtedness to the colonisers made South Africa pliant to an inchoate capitalist imperative. The paper uses a content analysis method to formulate the data and conclusion of the study. It ultimately recommends measures that can assist in restoring South Africa to its rich status.

Theory and practice of war: Francisco de Pedrosa and an episode about the conquest of Africa

The Arte y suplimento Re militar by Francisco de Pedrosa (Naples, 1541) is a less studied book, that belongs to the genre of the ars militaris. The article aims to offer new informations on this important book starting from its important iconographic apparatus: it has several affinities with the work of Roberto Valturio. In addition, the essay is concentrated in the analysis of the significant artifice of the galleys bridge; it is a ruse that Garcia de Toledo used in the conquest of the Tunisian city Al-Mahdiyya (1550), maybe inspired by classical military literature, explained by Valturio and Pedrosa; it was adapted to the scenic requirements of the monarchy and above all to the war needs of the battle.

Diplomats in Science Diplomacy: Promoting Scientific and Technological Collaboration in International Relations**

Diplomats in Science Diplomacy: Promoting Scientific and Technological Collaboration in International Relations**

Science for Competition among Powers: Geographical Knowledge, Colonial-Diplomatic Networks, and the Scramble for Africa*.

Historical studies on the relationship between science and diplomacy tend to focus on events since World War II and on initiatives for the maintenance of peace or to achieve cooperation over contentious matters. This article presents the case of José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (1823-1907), a Portuguese zoologist who had formal diplomatic responsibilities in a context of competition for the colonization of Africa in the nineteenth century. He used his knowledge in African geography to implement colonial and diplomatic strategies that aimed at outcompeting rival powers. The development of a network of actors with scientific, colonial, and diplomatic expertise was crucial for the negotiations that involved the partition of the Congo basin, which resulted in victories for Portugal that surpassed the country's marginal political relevance at the international level and had long-lasting consequences.

The Animal Body As Medium: Taxidermy And European Expansion, 1775–1865

Abstract This article examines how the preserved animal body, with its roots in anatomy and the eighteenth-century culture of curiosity, came to evolve into a medium of European expansion by the mid-nineteenth century. It does so by concentrating on surviving specimens of preserved primates stemming from eighteenth and nineteenth-century collections which also produced documentation concerning the practices of their exhibition. Most historians now agree that the permeation of European society by the ideology of imperialism was crucial in ensuring the long-term success of expansion overseas at a time when questions of suffrage and representation were becoming increasingly volatile. Exhibitions and museums were of special importance in promoting the imperial agenda because of their appeal to broad sections of the illiterate and semi-literate public. Yet historians of empire have not dwelt on the fact that taxidermy objects were, in fact, European-made craft objects and as such reveal more about the time and place they were made in than about the animal’s country of origin. Taxidermy, unlike other media, not only told a certain narrative about other global regions, their wildlife and peoples. It also appeared to prove this narrative through the presence of the real animal body. As a result, the new medium was pivotal in reinforcing concepts of European superiority in the years between the establishment of the Raj in India and the Scramble for Africa in the 1880s.

Anglo-Portuguese Relations in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Informal Empire, Arbitration, and the Durability of an Asymmetrical Alliance

Abstract This article examines Anglo-Portuguese relations in the middle of the nineteenth century, particularly conflicts over territorial claims in West and East Africa. It examines how these conflicts were de-escalated and why they did not tear asunder the long-standing, if asymmetrical, alliance between Britain and Portugal. After briefly surveying Anglo-Portuguese relations in the early modern period and in the first half of the nineteenth century, the article focuses on the way that conflicts were resolved through third-party arbitration between the 1850s and 1870s. Drawing on archival research in Portugal and Britain, the article contributes to the rich historiographies on informal empire, the partition of Africa, and the emergence of international law in the context of imperial conflict and collaboration.

Carving Out an Empire? How China Strategically Uses Aid to Facilitate Chinese Business Expansion in Africa **

Abstract:China’s rising investment and aid flows into Africa have raised concerns over its increasing influence, triggering worries about a new scramble for Africa. This paper sorts out the motivations behind the various forms of Chinese aid, arguing that China uses different types of aid strategically to divert the recipient countries’ economic and institutional orientation towards its own interests. Exploiting the AidData set, we show that China’s official development aid (ODA) is positively related to an export bias in favour of China, suggesting that it serves to secure privileged access for Chinese firms to African resources. ODA tends to flow to less democratic regimes, because less accountable governments have more power to offer long-run privileges to their financial supporters. In contrast, we show that other official flows (OOF) are used to increase China’s import share and is positively related to institutional quality, since this has a positive influence on market growth. This suggests that OOF is mainly used to facilitate Chinese access to promising African consumer markets. We conclude that while China employs different aid flows for different economic purposes, it uses all aid flows strategically to advance its interests and create an economic sphere of influence in Africa.

Manufacturing Crisis: Anti-slavery ‘Humanitarianism’ and Imperialism in East Africa, 1888–1890

ABSTRACT In the 1888–1889 Bushiri War, German chancellor Otto von Bismarck seized upon pan-European rhetoric of the ‘Arab slave trade’ to organise a coalition of Europe’s colonial powers to blockade the East African coast. The blockade was the most direct international action against the slave trade at the height of antislavery activism but has largely been left out of narratives about 1880s antislavery. Historians working in recent years have complicated the story of European antislavery in the late nineteenth century from an idea of antislavery as merely a façade for imperial expansion. These studies have examined the intersections of humanitarianism and imperialism in the major conferences of the Scramble for Africa. Bismarck tried to replace conference diplomacy with an Anglo-German alliance. But when the highest profile blockade capture was German, supporters of a more aggressive approach in both Germany and the UK overwhelmed the small abolitionist movement and demanded their governments quit working together in the manner of the blockade. The individual national action of the 1890s overtook other methods of humanitarianism in empire. The blockade’s failure helps explain why the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference unfolded as it did and the course of antislavery internationalism after 1890.

‘But I Know You, You Are Not God’: African Responses to European Colonialism in a Missionary Newspaper

This article analyses how African letter-writers in the missionary-edited Setswana newspaper Mahoko a Becwana (1883–96) sought to make sense of expanding European power during the ‘scramble for Africa’ and its accompanying social and political changes. The newspaper wrestled with readers’ opinions on a wide range of contentious topics, including ethnic identity, literacy, chieftaincy, colonial government, alcohol, adolescent initiation, marriage, religion and rational thought in general. The article questions the prevalent emphasis on European hegemony and highlights ways in which Africans managed to develop and maintain a separate discourse beyond European control or description as they critiqued and selectively adopted various elements of European culture. During the late 19th century, most Setswana-speaking people still regarded their populous chiefly capitals as the centres of society and relatively new European towns as peripheral, and they expected to maintain their autonomy while adapting to new circumstances. Those expectations would soon be severely challenged by rinderpest, war, industrialisation and the entrenchment of European power, but, building on their previous strategies, they initially pursued ways to accommodate European colonisation that preserved their existing communal strength.

A New Scramble for EurAfrica?

The British referendum on continued EU membership in 2016 was infused with Brexiteer discourse relating to a fairer UK relationship with African countries inside the Commonwealth. Prominent campaigners including Boris Johnson and Daniel Hannan regularly spoke of the EU’s mercantilist trade and aid policies in sub-Saharan Africa as a means to underscore the supranational project’s unsavoury relationship with Anglophone developing countries. Brexit, it was claimed, would usher in a new era whereby the UK Department for International Development (DFID) - and a resurgent UK Department for International Trade (DFIT) - would have the opportunity to offer humanitarian aid and free trade unencumbered by the cynicism of the European Commission. Recent policy papers from both DFID and DFIT, however, have made clear that the UK intends to replicate the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) under negotiation between the European Commission and sub-regions of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bloc. This is despite Brexiteer discourse about the EPAs’ apparent pitfalls relating to non-tariff barriers and the import-flooding of African markets. Perhaps more worryingly, meanwhile, DFID and DFIT publications highlight the need for UK Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) – notably the CDC Group – to robustly compete with their EU counterparts, to gain better market share for UK businesses within emerging African markets. In this context, the article argues that Brexit will intensify a ‘new scramble for Africa’ and highlights emerging challenges for European development cooperation vis-à-vis normative pledges to sustainable development. Additionally, it considers possible African responses via reflection on the writings of Kwame Nkrumah regarding ‘neo-colonialism’.

Mapping the International System, 1886-2019: The CShapes 2.0 Dataset

This article introduces CShapes 2.0, a GIS dataset that maps the borders of states and dependent territories from 1886 through 2019. Our dataset builds on the previous CShapes dataset and extends it in two main ways. First, it extends temporal coverage from 1946 back to the year 1886, which followed the Berlin Conference on the partition of Africa. Second, the new dataset is no longer limited to independent states, but also maps the borders of colonies and other dependencies, thereby providing near complete global coverage of political units throughout recent history. This article explains the coding procedure, provides a preview of the dataset and presents three illustrative applications.

Manufacturing International Law: Pre-printed Treaties in the ‘Scramble for Africa’

Abstract The 1880s saw a unique confluence of means, motives, and opportunities which led the British and their agents on African frontiers to enter into hundreds of pre-printed form treaties with local groups. By treating indigenous groups as interchangeable counterparties to their agreements, the new tools carried by these diplomats in canoes carried both the benefits of expediency and the problems of alienation. The mass production of international law – made by relatively unskilled labour, in bulk, with limited variation – had arrived. This practice connects the emerging modernity of the cultures of international law, diplomacy, printing technology, and domestic law.

Single women teachers as missionaries and Women Education Officers in mid-twentieth century British Africa

ABSTRACT This article focuses on British women missionaries and Women Education Officers (WEOs) in British Africa when girls’ education was prioritised in preparations for independence. The marriage bar was removed in Britain in 1944 but remained for WEOs and missionaries. The article explores how they negotiated singleness in their lives and work in the mid-twentieth century. It examines their leadership and teaching in mission and government schools and training colleges, their relationships with other members of the Colonial Education Service and their social lives. Both groups were advantaged by their linguistic and cultural authority and their professional qualifications and experience, but the enforcement of the marriage bar rendered their status anachronistic and they were subjected to deficit discourses of singleness in some circumstances. In essence, missionaries and WEOs negotiated contrasting discourses of empowerment and marginalisation in constructing positive accounts of their lives and work as single women.

Book Reviews

J. M. MacKenzie. The Partition of Africa, 1880-1900. London and New York: Methuen, 1983. Pp. x, 48. Paper, $2.95. Review by Leslie C. Duly of Bemidji State University. C. Joseph Pusateri. A History of American Business. Arlington Heights, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1984. Pp. xii, 347. Cloth, $25.95; Paper, $15.95. Review by Paul H. Tedesco of Northeastern University. Russell F. Weigley. History of the United States Army. Enlarged edition. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984. Pp. vi, 730. Paper, $10.95. Review by Calvin L. Christman of Cedar Valley College. Jonathan H. Turner, Royce Singleton, Jr., and David Musick. Oppression: A Socio-History of Black-White Relations in America. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1984. Cloth, $24.95; Paper, $11.95. Review by Thomas F. Armstrong of Georgia College. H. Warren Button and Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. History of Education and Culture in America. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1983. Pp. xvii, 370. Cloth, $20.95. Review by Peter J. Harder. Vice President, Applied Economics, Junior Achievement Inc. David Stick. Roanoke Island: The Beginnings of English America. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1983. Pp. xiv, 266. Cloth, $14.95; Paper, $5.95. Review by Mary E. Quinlivan of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. John B. Boles. Black Southerners 1619-1869. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1983. Pp. ix, 244. Cloth, $24.00; Paper, $9.00. Review by Kay King of Mountain View College. Elaine Tyler May. Great Expectations: Marriage and Divorce in Post-Victorian America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. Pp. viii, 200. Cloth, $15.00; Paper, $6.95. Review by Barbara J. Steinson of DePauw University. Derek McKay and H. M. Scott. The Rise of the Great Powers, 1648-1815. London: Longman, 1983. Pp. 368. Paper, $13.95. Review by Linda Frey of the University of Montana. Jack S. Levy. War in the Modern Great Power System, 1495-1975. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1983. Pp. xiv, 215. Cloth, $24.00. Review by Bullitt Lowry of North Texas State University. Lionel Kochan and Richard Abraham. The Making of Modern Russia. Second Edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1983. Pp. 544. Paper, $7.95. Review by Pasquale E. Micciche of Fitchburg State College. D. C. B. Lieven. Russia and the Origins of the First World War. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983. Pp. 213. Cloth, $25.00. Review by Joseph M. McCarthy of Suffolk University. John F. V. Kieger. France and the Origins of the First World War. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983. Pp. vii, 201. Cloth, $25.00. Review by Robert B. Luehrs of Fort Hays State University. E. Bradford Burns. The Poverty of Progress: Latin Amerca in the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. Pp. 185. Paper, $6.95. Review by Robert Fischer of the Southern Technical Institute. Anthony Seldon and Joanna Pappworth. By Word of Mouth: Elite Oral History. London and New York: Methuen, 1983. Pp. xi, 258. Cloth, $25.00; Paper, $12.95. Review by Jacob L. Susskind of the Pennsylvania State University, The Capitol Campus.

The Second Scramble for Africa: A Cause for Afro-Pessimism

This paper argued that although the second scramble for Africa could be located within the broader neo-imperialist global strategy, nevertheless, it is quite different from the classic race for Africa in the 19th century, in terms of its approach, mechanism, timing and new participants. It is also new in some ways. Firstly, it has enlisted the rampageous United States of America, Russia and the ravenous new Asian entrants such as China and India, plus the Oil-rich Sheikdoms, while retaining a number of the European imperial powers in the affray. Secondly, it has created a local bourgeoisie that sees itself as the overseer of foreign interests on the continent. Thirdly, the ideology of the new scramble is based on quick-loot-fast-plunder and is derived from modern globalization imperatives. This study which adopted as its approach, a combination of descriptive, analytical, evaluative as well as historical perspectives insists that unless the second scramble is checked, it would consolidate Africa’s relegation to marginality, cultural irrelevance, and eventual recolonization. Through the test of series of hypotheses, the work exposed the major forces at work as it answered some basic questions of the research. It concludes that Africa needs a super power to provide it with a nuclear umbrella, and draw a marshal plan – the type America did for the war devastated Europe at the end of the Second World War, to assert itself.

Sino-African Relations: Emerging Concerns and Dynamics

The objective of this article is to demonstrate that one of the most significant consequences of the growth of China-Africa relations is the positioning of the African continent as a possible theatre for US-China geo-political rivalry. The interpretative approach adopted in this essay involves a comprehensive review of extant literature, and draws on recent data to highlight China’s economic forays into Africa and the attendant implications. Undeniably, Africa’s strategic minerals are of great value to both competing global powers, that is, the United States and China. Interestingly, China’s presence in Africa has been bolstered by its state-capitalist model which has captivated and convinced most African leaders into believing that this alternative development paradigm might be the answer to Africa’s long quest for economic growth. To many African leaders whose regimes are mainly pseudo-democracies, the Chinese model which delivers economic growth without embracing democracy has become an attractive option vis-à-vis the Western model which is predicated on unpopular conditionalities of good governance and respect for human rights. While the emergence of China in Africa has been welcomed in the continent, it is equally true that some concerns and fears are emerging over the growing presence of China in Africa. Some of these concerns include the reversal of the democratization agenda in some African countries; the unequal trade relations between Africa and China; environmental questions on Chinese investments; and fears of a re-packaged form of new colonialism.More importantly, most African countries are apprehensive about the growing tensions between China and the US over Africa which might lead to a new ‘Scramble for Africa’ and the re-emergence of proxy conflicts on the continent.

Restructuring the African Identity through Language-An Analysis of Achebe's Linguistic Tools in Things Fall Apart

The article discusses Achebe's intentions while writing his novel Things Fall Apart, his choice of language and vocabulary in the novel and essentially, the linguistic choices he makes while writing his African narrative in the English language. Growing up in pre and post-colonial Africa, Achebe had a first-hand experience of the turmoil that his people went through at the hands of the Europeans and how there was a gradual but continuous subjugation of the native at the hands of the colonizer. This experience shaped his African narrative and gave him a better insight into the mind-set of the African individual. He recognised the growing importance of English in his Nigerian community and saw the changes that it brought about in Africa; and wanted to use it as a realistic concept for his novel. Achebe's use of English language is refashioned by a blending with the indigenous languages. He brought in a wide range of Igbo vocabulary and loan words to his writing style as well as a third person narrative voice to give his readers a realistic perception of Nigerian life. The plot construction of Achebe is the extrinsic structure by which he showcases the different responses to the influence of English and European colonialism in Africa.

Heart of darkness: joseph conrad's anti-imperialistic perception throughout racism, pessimism, impressionism

Imperialism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness is one of the chief focal aspects of critical controversy and debate in the fields of literary theory and literary criticism. The aim of the study is to examine the ideological background to viewing Conrad as anti-imperialist in ‘Heart of Darkness’, while dealing also with the presentation of imperialism and racism. The study reveals that Conrad was consciously anti-imperialist but he unconsciously or carelessly employed racist terminology. The novel is a moving record of White imperialism in the Belgian Congo and of the intense suffering of the Africans. It conveys Conrad's nihilistic impression of the Whites who exercised unpardonable authority over natives. As Conrad sets up Africa as a foil to Europe and a place of negation and cannibalism, many contemporary critics viewed the text as a racist work. But in writing about the diabolical practice of White imperialism in Africa, can Conrad be seen as an extremist in terms of racism? Does he support the dehumanization of natives which is practiced by the Whites in the name of a civilizing role? The study scrupulously examines these controversial elements in the text and concludes that Conrad's impressionistic narrative technique, incorporating a pessimistic viewpoint, along with his disillusioned emotions over what seems to be White cannibalism in the Congo, and the excessively grim nature of the novel Heart of Darkness, all serve Conrad's anti-imperialistic perspective effectively. Conrad's anti-imperialistic ideology employed in Heart of Darkness provides then a tremendous attack on inhuman, brutalized White imperialism. The absence of joys, success and optimism that strengthen the impression of extreme negation throughout the novel is evidence of Conrad's deeply anti-imperialistic perspective.

The corruption race in Africa: Nigeria versus South Africa, who cleans the mess first?

The corruption race in Africa: Nigeria versus South Africa, who cleans the mess first?