Liberation of Africa Was a Major Achievement of the Human Spirit

Liberation of Africa was a major achievement of the human spirit.

European colonial powers after World War II continued to manipulate and take advantage of African nationalist who were struggling for liberation. Through different types of attacks such as using deadly force, creation of collaborators, psychological manipulation through internalized racism and even the heightening of indigenous divisions, all were used against Africans who tried their hardest to gain a sense of freedom. These types of things were happening all over the continent at the time, from the northern tip of Africa through the central Congo all the way down south, it was almost impossible to avoid a colonial power sent from Europe. In this text I will try to examine how the African Nationalist found strategies against the ever growing European powers in their continuous fight for independence.

Throughout the last century Africa has been a dangerous and savage place. In the Senegal PowerPoint done in class, it was stated that colonization = force + savagery. This does seem accurate when looking back on what European colonies had to do in order to gain colonialism over the African lands. Brutal beatings, unjust police officers, and simply inhumane relations between colonizer and colonized. Throughout the area French looked at Africans as their slaves, and believed they were their rightful master. But there was help in these dark times for Senegal. A man named Aime Cesaire, born in Basse-Point, Martinique on June 25th, 1913, was a man who believed the African people deserved to be on their own without the guidance of European power. He believed that colonization was “inexcusable and detrimental to the entire world”. At a time when most Europeans looked at these African outsiders as “uncivilized” and “barbaric”, Cesaire understood that these people were just like you and I. Cesaire wrote The Black Student, a literary view which was the forerunner of the negritude movement. NÐ"©gritude is a literary and political movement developed in the 1930s by a group of people who believed solidarity in the black identity as a rejection to French colonialism. The main tenets of Negritude alongside Cesaire were Leopold Senghor and Leon Damas. Those who followed in the Negritude movement also believed that black heritage of the African Diaspora was the best way to fight against French domination. Cesaire used different techniques to try and portray the African people not as savages but as humans. He targeted the European educated, tried to educate them against the ruthlessness of colonialism, and tried to teach them about humanity and equality. The Negritude movement was not as much a political movement as much as it was a literary one. The leaders emphasized the power of words, rhythm, and images over other techniques. This quote, taken from the Senegal PowerPoint presentation, shows us just this; “The exoticism that threatens the credibility of his anthropological hypothesis adds a certain charm to his literature.”

Alongside the literary movement of Negritude were others means in which Africans tried to gain their freedom. Sometimes just believing in an idea doesn’t always equate into change, so the Africans of Senegal took things into their own hands to ensure the French from having complete control. The strike of the African railway workers shut down almost all of the railroads throughout French Africa. This was said to have lasted for over 5 months. There were many positive outcomes of the railway strike, for instance

ordinary wage earners saw a large increase in their wages, wage hierarchies were expanded and there was a reduced taxes on peasants.

Similarly to Senegal, Algeria was in the same type of quarrel with the French. Although the two countries have some similarities, there are also some differences in the way they went about colonialism. A man named Frantz Fanon, born in Martinique on July 20, 1925, was a psychiatrist, essayist and activist during the Algerian struggle for independence. Fanon believed that in order to gain control of their own lands, they must gain weapons and arm themselves. “We must not trust the good faith of the colonialist, but we must arm ourselves with firmness and combativeness” (Algeria PowerPoint). Also, Fanon believed that uniting all of Africa was the best way to ensure liberation. “It is the hand of the African and his brain that will set into motion and implement the dialectics of the liberation of the continent” (Algeria PowerPoint). The French claimed dominance over Algeria in the 1830’s, despite the numerous years that the French were in Algeria, they never gave full cultural and political rights to the indigenous people. After 1870, French politicians believed it was their special mission to civilize the people of Algeria. This clearly frustrated the people of Algeria, and after a century, it was inevitable that the people would fight back. “The enemy of the African under French domination is not colonialism insofar as it exerts itself within the strict limit of its nations, but it is the forms of colonialism, it is the manifestations of colonialism, whatever be the flag under which it asserts itself” (Algeria PowerPoint). Algeria was at a point where war with the French is the only possible chance to gain any political control.

The Congo River and Basin is one of the most fertile places in all of the world, but with such an envious trait such as that, it is no wonder that its richness in wildlife attracted not so welcome people. The congo’s abundancy in resources, including ivory and rubber, were main reasons why the area has had so much conflict in the past century. What also makes it easily exploitable is the Congo River, creating easy access almost anywhere in the Congo. King Leopold of Belgium was the man who decided to make a colony in the Congo. Growing up, Leopold dreamed of colonizing, and by the age of 20, was searching for the first area he could find. Once Leopold found the Congo and started his exploitation tactics, he soon realized that Belgium’s wealth was dependent on the resources found in the Congo. Prior to 1900, Leopold implemented a monopoly on Ivory and Rubber, the rubber was soon known throughout

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