Scramble For Africa Research Articles

The Rashāyida Arabs vs. the State: The Impact of European Colonialism on a Small-Scale Society in Sudan and Eritrea

The Rashāyida Arabs vs. the State: The Impact of European Colonialism on a Small-Scale Society in Sudan and Eritrea William C. Young Studies of European colonialism in Africa often focus on the transformation of large-scale institutions during and after the colonial period. Country-wide economic changes, the growth of nationalist movements and other political trends, and the tensions between military and political forces are all carefully described at the macroscopic, national level.1 Yet colonialism has an impact on the microscopic levels of family, village, and tribe as well. Historians often find it difficult to document the effects of colonialism at a microscopic level, however. Small social formations such as villages and tribes rarely produce the detailed written records needed by historians to reconstruct social transformations. Anthropologists, who excel at producing extremely detailed accounts of local political and economic systems, can provide much information about the microscopic level but only for a relatively short period.2 To see how colonialism affects the local level over a long term, we must combine the data and methods of historians with those of anthropologists and other social scientists.3 This paper represents an attempt to apply these methods to a particular case: that of the Rashāyida Arabs during the colonial period in Sudan and Eritrea (1866–1993). It complements the recent work by Gewald on the colonial reconstruction of “tribes” in western Eritrea, slightly to the west of the areas discussed in this paper, during the 1940s.4 The Rashāyida of Eritrea and Sudan are descended from Arabic-speaking Bedouin who migrated from a variety of locations on the Arabian side of the Red Sea in the late 1860s and settled in what is now Sudan and Eritrea. The Rashāyida are not numerous. It is estimated that there were about 40,000 Rashāyida in Sudan and probably fewer than that in Eritrea in 1980.5 Despite their small numbers, they have managed to preserve their de facto independence from both Eritrea and Sudan. Their current independence can only be understood in light of the history of the frontier zone between Sudan and Eritrea. At the time when the Rashāyida reached the African coast of the Red Sea, it was contested by two empires: the Ottoman empire – represented locally by Egyptian forces – and the central Ethiopian state ruled by Emperor Tēwodros (Theodore) II.6 The Egyptians wanted to expand the territory of neighboring Sudan, which they had invaded and conquered in 1821. They also wanted to strengthen their hold on the port cities of Sawākin and Massawa, which they had controlled on-and-off since 1811.7 Although the Red Sea coast was nominally under Ottoman administration from 1827 to 1865, the actual power there was often Egypt. Regardless, it was not until 1866 that the Ottomans ceded the two ports to the Egyptian government, and it was only then that Egypt felt free to develop them and integrate them more fully into the Egyptian economy. Egypt believed that the two ports would prosper after the completion of the Suez Canal, which was opened shortly afterward, in 1869. As for the Ethiopians, they were concerned that Ottoman and/or Egyptian control of the Red Sea coast would block Ethiopian trade with Britain and stifle economic expansion.8 Thus it must have seemed to the Rashāyida, when they arrived on the scene in the late 1860s, that the two main forces that they would have to contend with were the Egyptians on the coast and the Ethiopians in the interior. Within twenty years, however, the situation changed completely. The coastal strip on which they had settled was divided between two colonial states: the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (with a garrison in Sawākin, to the north) and the Italian colony of Eritrea (with its headquarters in Massawa, to the south). At the same time, the revolt of the Mahdi and his followers against Egyptian rule in 1882 briefly transformed Sudan into a theocratic state with expansionist, messianic goals. Mahdist campaigns in eastern Sudan pushed the Rashāyida out of the grazing lands that they had exploited for the twenty years after their first arrival and...

‘Our passion for legality’: international law and imperialism in late nineteenth-century Britain

AbstractThis article deploys a historical analysis of the relationship between law and imperialism to highlight questions about the character and role of international law in global politics. The involvement of two British international lawyers in practices of imperialism in Africa during the late nineteenth century is critically examined: the role of Travers Twiss (1809–1897) in the creation of the Congo Free State and John Westlake’s (1828–1913) support for the South African War. The analysis demonstrates the inescapably political character of international law and the dangers that follow from fusing a particular form of liberal moralism with notions of legal hierarchy. The historical cases raise ethico-political questions, the importance of which is only heightened by the character of contemporary world politics and the attention accorded to international law in recent years.

A Fate Worse Than Imperialism in Africa

A Fate Worse Than Imperialism in Africa

Imperial oil: the anatomy of a Nigerian oil insurgency

Alternative non-Persian Gulf sources of oil-supply are central to American geostrategic interests in the period since 2001. Vice President Cheney’s National Energy Strategy Report in 2001 bemoaned a dependency on foreign powers that “do not have America’s interests at heart”. Africa has emerged as one of the major new sources of US oil and gas supply. If Africa is not as well endowed in hydrocarbons (both oil and gas) as the Persian Gulf states, the West African Gulf of Guinea has nonetheless become the subject of fierce competition by energy companies over the continent’s copious reserves of natural gas and its sweet light oil. IHS Energy – one of the oil industry’s major consulting companies – expects African oil production, especially along the Atlantic littoral, to attract huge exploration investment contributing over 30% of world liquid hydrocarbon production by 2010. Over the last five years when new oil-field discoveries were a scarce commodity, Africa contributed one in every four barrels of new petroleum discovered outside of Northern America. This article addresses the new scramble for Africa in the context of a new conjuncture of global forces: military neoliberalism and the Global War on Terror (GWOT). I lay out the broad landscape of oil production on the continent and the extent to which, in the wake of a catastrophic two decades of neoliberal structural adjustment, investment in oil and gas dominates direct foreign investment in Africa. I then turn to the specific case of Nigeria – the most important producer of oil and gas on the continent and the petro-state of most geostrategic concern to the US – and use it as an exemplar of the failure of oil-based development. Central to this analysis is the emergence of new forms of armed insurgency in the oil producing Niger Delta that has rendered the entire area virtually ungovernable, increasingly so since the emergence in late 2005 of a new armed group MEND (the Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigeria Delta). I conclude with an account of the dynamics of this ungovernability – a pattern replicated throughout the Gulf of Guinea – and how this instability feeds into an American imperial vision to militarize the region.

China and the United States in Africa: Coming conflict or commercial coexistence?

China and the US are two key players in the recent round of ‘scrambling’ for Africa. They compete for control over oil and other strategic resources, for markets, and for political influence. Their competition has alarmed many. This study tests the alarmist interpretations by identifying what the US and China are actually doing and to how they perceive each other's activities. Their ambitions are often considered in isolation. When laid out side by side, the extent to which their activities in Africa may overlap or clash can be seen more clearly. China and the US are seeking different things at different places in the continent and are careful not to upset one another. Their activities do not support the dire prediction. The ‘scramble for Africa’ may irritate; it is unlikely to cause direct confrontations because competition remains by and large economic and economic competition in an integrated global economy creates networks of constraints that ameliorate potential confrontation.

The Benin Kingdom in British Imperial Historiography

The body of knowledge that constituted British imperial writing, and the expression that interacted with it were attempts to engage European readership on the imperial adventure in Africa in the age of the new imperialism. This study is an attempt to address the complex issues involved in the production of historical knowledge about precolonial Benin to justify British colonial rule. The argument advanced in this paper is that, since imperial discourse set out to deal with history in terms of civilization, British imperial writing was a struggle to articulate certain ideas about Benin into a position of dominance before the British public. As Mary Louise Pratt explains, “depicting the civilizing mission as an aesthetic project is a strategy the west has often used for defining others as available for and in need of its benign and beautifying intervention.” British imperial discourse will form the basis of the discussion in this paper.Imperial discourse and its subjectivity raises questions about issues of power and privilege of those writers who were determined to sustain their voices in the debate on European imperialism in Africa. Their approach to the constitution of knowledge about Benin was one of many ways that opened the frontiers of knowledge about African states and societies to redefine civilization, albeit for the purposes of understanding various meanings and implications in this intellectual assault. This provides a vital entry point for examining the European colonial approach to the construction of the image of Africa. The aim is to demonstrate how this process suggests a connection from imperial expansionism to forms of knowledge and expression that reaffirmed metropolitan authority in the context of colonial subjugation.

The Breaking of the Square: Late Victorian Representations of Anglo-Sudanese Warfare

Among the areas affected by the late nineteenth century “scramble for Africa”, the Sudan repeatedly drew the attention of the British public. Though mostly arid, inaccessible, and scarcely attractive from a purely economic point of view, it became a crucial concern for the British executive, as well as a focus of popular anxieties relating to British military prowess (or lack thereof). From the early 1880s (with the rise of the Mahdi, the disastrous defeat of General Hicks at Shaykan, the siege of Khartoum and its fall) to the late 1890s (with the slow advance of Kitchener’s army through the desert and along the Nile culminating in the battle of Omdurman), the military operations conducted in the Sudan not only fuelled a lively public debate, but provided exciting material for literature and popular entertainment. Indeed, with its austere desert landscape, its immemorial river and its warlike populations, the Sudan was marketed to the general public as the site for the perfect martial adventure. Working within this context, the article focuses on the representation of Anglo-Sudanese warfare, drawing on fiction and poetry, as well as on reportage and articles published in magazines. Its focus is the topical battle-scene known as “the breaking of the square”. The analysis elicits reflections on the construction of normative masculinity (with its emphasis on disciplined aggressiveness), on the perception of modern technology (which often made victory over native fighters alarmingly easy and hardly honorable), on the “uses” of violence and on the dynamics of “Imperialist nostalgia” (as the anthropologist Rosaldo dubbed it), i.e. the coloniser’s own regret at the inevitable destruction of native societies brought about by the process of compulsory modernization.

Untapped: the scramble for Africa's oil

Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn t seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude oil skyrocketing and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the nineteenth-century scramble for colonization there. Already the United States imports more of its oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia, and China, too, looks to the continent for its energy security. What does this giddy new oil boom mean for America, for the world, for Africans themselves? To find out, John Ghazvinian traveled through twelve African countries from Sudan to Congo to Angola talking to warlords, industry executives, bandits, activists, priests, missionaries, oil-rig workers, scientists, and ordinary people whose lives have been transformed not necessarily for the better by the riches beneath their feet. The result is a high-octane narrative that reveals the challenges, obstacles, reasons for despair, and reasons for hope emerging from the world s newest energy hot spot.

Indian Wars of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, 1812-1900

With this book, Bruce Vandervort, professor of modern European and African history at the Virginia Military Institute, turns his attention from Africa to the Western Hemisphere. He also broadens his approach into a multilayered comparative study that deftly blends military, political, and cultural history. His prior monograph, Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa, 1830 – 1914 (Indiana Univ. Press, 1998), focused on European wars to colonize Africa. He also edits the Journal of Military History.Part 1 (chapters 1 – 4) lays out the sophisticated comparative framework for this study of wars against native societies. Several characteristics set Vandervort’s work apart from, and above, most studies of military campaigns against native peoples. We gain comparative insights into Canadian, U.S., and Mexican governmental policies and military approaches. But he considers not only the tactics and strategies of the Euro- American powers but also those of the native forces. For example, he quotes George F. G. Stanley, writing in 1936, on “similarities between the fighting styles of the Boers and the Métis” (p. 225). We also learn a great deal about the equestrian “fluid style of warfare” of Plains Indians (p. 6) and the guerrilla tactics so successfully practiced by many native groups. One of the most revealing sections of the book is chapter 2, which contrasts Indians’ “ways of war” with Euro-American views and approaches. The analysis shows clearly that “religion suffused every aspect of Indian life, war included” (p. 66).Vandervort provides a richly nuanced comparative analysis. Not only do we find native versus European comparisons on a variety of topics, but also comparisons of Canadian, U.S., and Mexican officer corps, training, and weaponry. He provides a cogent critique of the inappropriateness of nineteenth-century U.S. military doctrine to engage the irregular warfare they faced in the plains. The demise of Custer’s command at the Little Big Horn also gets appropriate criticism: the result of “other’s mistakes and of the hubris and hunger for glory of their commander” (p. 186). Vandervort adds global comparisons of colonial wars against indigenous populations in Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. This is a work of transnational history in the very best sense of the term.The specific case studies are laid out chronologically in part 2 (chapters 5 – 10). Vandervort begins with the “Great Clearance” of Creeks, Seminoles, and others east of the Mississippi from 1815 through 1842. He then journeys south to examine Mexican campaigns against the Yaqui and the Maya in Yucatán from 1821 to 1876. Chapter 7 returns to the United States, focusing on the suppression of Plains Indians from 1848 though 1877. Vandervort next examines the “conquest of Apachería” from 1860 to 1886, considering both U.S. and Mexican strategies and actions. We then move north to the Canadian prairies to analyze campaigns against the Métis and the Cree. We then return to Mexico and the continued repression and oppression of the Yaqui and Maya during the Porfiriato. Organizationally, part 2 is not as explicitly comparative as part 1, but readers will already have a good grasp of similarities and differences and thus can draw their own comparisons.We also find significant historiographical debate and revisionist arguments throughout the book. Vandervort finds “technological determinism” to be “only a partial explanation for the success of Western-style armies” (p. 15). To explain the success of government forces in the “little wars” that he examines, he posits as the crucial factors “the resolution of internal conflicts and the subsequent consolidation of national power in the white settler states” (p. xvi). On the Mexican front, Vandervort makes a case that, in Sonora, the much-maligned Rurales “were given the job of tracking down and rounding up dissident Yaquis and shipping them off to the henequen fields of Yucatán” (p. 230). The view that the U.S. Civil War offered “a hiatus to Indians in the West” he dubs “highly misleading” (pp. 170 – 71).The author draws mainly upon the very large English-language literature available for North American military frontier history, but he also supplements with selected sources in French and Spanish. Sixteen very good maps supplement the text, but, oddly, the book includes no other illustrations. Devotees of comparative, military, and frontier history will find this excellent study stimulating and informative. However, the clarity of the arguments and of the writing renders the book accessible to student and general audiences as well.

Die intensiteit van die Semi-Pelagiaanse stryd in die Galliese Kerk van die vyfde en sesde eeu

The intensity of the Semi-Pelagian controversy in the Gaulish Church of the fifth and sixth centuries The controversy over Augustine’s predestinarian views was transferred to Gaul after the Vandal conquest of Africa. The Pelagian controversy was characterised by the participation of several prominent figures and the convention of seven councils. The question, however, is why the Semi-Pelagian controversy was of such a different character. The answer is to be found in the context of the participants in the debate: the unique charac- ter of the Gaulish Church, the influence from the monasteries and the distinctive political setting of this region. John Cassian, founder of the monasteries of Marseilles, took the view that God’s grace comes as an answer to the beginning of a good will in the human person and the free will in man can either neg- lect or delight in the grace of God. The same sentiments were soon heard from the monastery on the island of Lerins. The reaction to this stance by Prosper of Aquitaine led to the literary involvement of Augustine. For several decades the bishops of Arles and Vienne attempted to raise their city’s ecclesiastical status above the other cities of Southern Gaul – a phenomenon typical of the public life of this region. In 529 Caesarius, former monk of Lerins, of aristocratic descent and bishop of Arles, held a synod at Orange. This synod affirmed a diluted form of the Augustinian position. All the elements of the character of this controversy can be found in the person of Caesarius who was also mainly responsible for the formulation of the canons of this synod.

The Struggle for Zimbabwe, Then and Now: Notes Toward a Deep History of the Current Crisis

The struggle for Zimbabwe is coterminus with the commencement of the Southern Rhodesian colonial project, which was part of the larger European scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century. L...

A History of Disasters: Spanish Colonialism in the Age of Empire

AbstractHistorians have long relegated colonialism to the margins of modern Spanish history. Spain lost the majority of its overseas empire in the Spanish American revolutions of the early nineteenth century. It was a late, reluctant, and small‐scale participant in the partition of Africa. Recent scholarship, however, is bringing colonialism back to the center of Spain's nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article examines these findings and considers their consequences for narratives of Spanish marginality and modernity. Special attention is given to two recent works: John Tone's War and Genocide in Cuba and Sebastian Balfour's Deadly Embrace.

“This, I told myself, was really Africa”. Of Territories and Women. Women’s Travel Narratives in Late 19th Century Southern Africa

In Victorian Britain, travel writing was informed by an unprecedented colonial expansion – in particular, the “scramble for Africa” – and the rise of the women’s movement in the late 19th century. Fuelled by the notions of motherhood and domesticity that characterized late imperial society, the presence of women in colonies served the purpose of domesticating the South. Yet, as geographical conquest merges with sexual conquest, the narratives of some female travellers in Southern Africa unveil unexpected territories that manifest specific territorialities. Although conjuring up feminist utopias, weren’t these female writers trying to construct a conspicuous literary ghetto ?

MEDICAL MISSIONARIES AND MODERNIZING EMIRS IN COLONIAL HAUSALAND: LEPROSY CONTROL AND NATIVE AUTHORITY IN THE 1930S

This article argues that emirs modernized and enhanced their authority through cooperation with Christian missions in the anti-leprosy campaign in colonial Hausaland in the 1930s. New documentary and oral sources detail how Native Administrations and Sudan Interior Mission workers together established leprosaria that were important beyond religious interaction. Emirs translated Islamic ideals of charity into governmental responsibility for medical welfare. The leprosy scheme brought together the elite and non-elite in ways that would previously have been unimaginable and took emirs' power to new reaches in an era of expanding native authority in Nigeria and throughout much of British Africa.

The rise, decline, and future of the British Commonwealth

List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction PART 1: THE NEHRU COMMONWEALTH The Immediate Post-War Period India and Pakistan Burma Ceylon Malaya Britain, the Commonwealth and Asian Independence Defence The United States of America and Empire The West Indies Federation The Suez Crisis and Its Aftermath The Middle East and Cyprus PART 2: THE AFRICAN COMMONWEALTH British Africa South Africa The Central African Federation and Rhodesia Britain, the Commonwealth and Independent Africa Economic Matters Britain's Entry to the EEC Immigration and Citizenship PART 3: SOME OTHER 'COMMONWEALTHS' The OIF, the CPLP, the OEI and the Dutch PART 4: NOBODY'S COMMONWEALTH? The Position of the Crown Domestic and Public Opinion Media Comments through the Years Knowledge of the Modern Commonwealth The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Report, 1995-96 The 'Commonwealth Factor' in Trade and Economic Relations A New Agenda for the Old Commonwealth The Commonwealth Today - and Tomorrow Notes Bibliography Index

Political inclusion and parliamentary changes among thirteen states in the former British Africa

Since their independence, substitute versions of ‘African presidentialism' have replaced what were earlier largely Westminster-style parliamentary systems in 11 of the 13 ‘Anglo-African' states whose constitutions were examined. But several ‘hybrid' features of African presidentialism presently found in a majority of these eleven cases now likely soften from the standpoint of political inclusion, suggested negative consequences of the above (ordinarily profound) constitutional transition from a parliamentary to a presidential form of government. Still, it is argued, these new systems in general could well support a less effective and less inclusive interface than formerly between aggregated popular desires in the legislatures and executive-government ‘outputs' – this notwithstanding, a significant growth occurring since independence in the number of elected members among the 13 legislatures considered. Africa Insight Vol. 36 (2) June 2006: 7-24

A New Scramble for African Oil? Historical, Political, and Business Perspectives

It has been suggested that Africa is experiencing a `New Scramble' thanks primarily to its oil and gas wealth, with the United States and the People's Republic of China actively competing for access to Africa's resources. This article aims to scrutinize the claim that Africa is facing a New Scramble, analysing the nature of the economic and political changes at work, the importance of Africa's oil, and the political and economic forces behind the new oil rush. The article starts with an overview of the phenomenon labelled by some as the `New Scramble'. The main body of the article evaluates the existence of a New Scramble from three subject perspectives: history, international relations, and business studies. Finally, by analysing the likely impact on the economies of oil-producing states, it considers whether we should dismay or rejoice over the `New Scramble for Africa'. It concludes that the existence of a New Scramble or a US-Chinese race for Africa should be treated with some caution and that the use of terms such as `scramble' and `race' is perhaps misleading, while the economic impact of oil investments is likely to be bleak.

Spirit possession, power, and the absent presence of Islam: re‐viewing Les maîtres fous*

In the history of ethnographic documentary, the late Jean Rouch's film Les maîtres fous is widely regarded as initiating a new phase in the development of the genre. It concerns the hauka spirit‐possession cult of Songhay‐Zerma migrants from the middle Niger river who had come to work in Accra, then the capital of the British colony of the Gold Coast, West Africa. When released in 1955, the film was both banned by the colonial authorities and simultaneously denounced by African intellectuals and leading French anthropologists. Since then it has gone through a progressive rehabilitation and today, some fifty years on, it is hailed in many sources as a remarkable counter‐hegemonic representation of European colonialism in Africa. This article proposes a re‐interpretation of Les maîtres fous, arguing that in order to defend the film against criticism, its counter‐hegemonic features have been over‐emphasized, thereby obscuring its continuity with other forms of Songhay‐Zerma religious belief and practice. The article concludes with some brief reflections on the place of film in anthropology.

Empire of Oil: Capitalist Dispossession and the Scramble for Africa

put into words what all previous presidents could not bring themselves to utter in public: addiction. The United States, he conceded, is "addicted" to oil—which is to say addicted to the car—and as a consequence unhealthily dependent upon Middle Eastern suppliers. What he neglected to mention was that the post-Second World War U.S. global oil acquisition strategy—a central plank of U.S. foreign policy since President Roosevelt met King Saud of Saudi Arabia and cobbled together their "special relationship" aboard the USS Quincy in February 1945—is in a total shambles. The pillars of that policy—Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf oil states, and Venezuela—are hardly supplicant sheep within the U.S. imperial foldThis article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

America, China & the Scramble for Africa's Oil

After decades of Cold War, when Africa was simply viewed as a convenient pawn on the global chessboard, and a further decade of benign neglect in the 1990s, the African continent has now become a vital arena of strategic and geopolitical competition for not only the United States, but also for China, India, and other new emerging powers. The main reason for this is quite simple: Africa is the final frontier as far as the world's supplies of energy are concerned with global competition for both oil and natural gas (particularly the latter) becoming just as intense – if not even more so – than the former. The factors behind the growing attention to African energy supplies are well known; so we will only summarise them here.1 World oil production is only just meeting world demand and old fields are being drained faster than new production can be brought on line. Supplies will be tight for the foreseeable future, so any new source of supply is significant. Most importers are also trying to reduce their dependence on Middle Eastern oil. In the next 10-15 years, most of the new oil entering the world market is going to be coming from African fields because it is only in Africa – and to a lesser extent in the volatile Central Asia region – that substantial new fields have been found and brought into production.