As the scramble for Africa started, they were many African voices calling for resistance in opposed to colonial conquest. However, how did this call for resistance start? The Berlin Conference, also known as the scramble for Africa, was established to divide Africa amongst the major superpower nations. These nations were the United States, Germany, Britain, Austria-Hungary, Italy, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Sweden-Norway, and Turkey. These nations came together to claim different colonies in Africa, mostly coastal, depending on how resourceful they were. This is where colonialism continued and African resistance started. Colonialism can be said to have followed after Europe’s industrial transformation, remembering main reason for colonial conquest being for economic gain. Western Europe’s need to be imperialistic came at the expense of Africa’s own extensive labor and territory. As result of the Berlin conference, African rulers and societies responded to colonial conquest in a various amount of ways including through military force and resistance. This resistance included Ethiopia’s victory against Italy, Maji Maji’s uprising, and South Africa’s fight with the British army.
Industrialization was a main component of imperialism in Africa. The major powers needed new markets to trade their goods and raw materials for producing those same goods. The European industrial transformation started off with the development of steamboats like the Nemesis, which were made of industrially produced iron, and included other tools/weapons that played a part in the race for major power from a global perspective. Africa’s relationship with Europe was now developing even more due to this transformation. Colonialism continued to thrive as steamers and boats were produced more because of Africa’s resourceful coastlines, they’ve founded a new route for their exploration. However, this exploration came along with exploitation of Africa. One can argue that the wealth of the west was built on exploiting Africa for their raw materials. How can one argue about the justification of exploiting Africa for their raw materials? According to the textbook, “The belief that Africans were at the bottom of the racial hierarchy meant…the European colonialists treated their African subjects in ways that way they rarely treated Asian colonial subjects.” (Gilbert and Reynolds, Africa in World History, 2012, p.272) They didn’t treat the Africans as their counterparts, yet, they imposed all these treaties signing away their sovereignty. Many times these African rulers ended up being in these prolonged disputes with the European states because of their need to be the new authoritarian figures. In Ndansi Kumalo describes the defeat of Lobengula and the Ndebele, Ndansi shares a detailed account of how cruelly soldiers sent from Britain treat South Africans. “But the white men sent native police who did abominable things; they were cruel and assaulted a lot of our people and helped themselves to our cattle and goats…We were treated like slaves” (Ndansi Kumalo describes the defeat of Lobengula and the Ndebele, 1893, p.266) Keeping in mind that the natives were used for their resources like cattle and goats, and in return were abused by these Englishmen. This suppression fueled a revolution in South Africa, Africans decided to fight against this suppression rather than just dying from it. Surely enough, a rebellion soon broke out. This rebellion caused so much causalities amongst the Africans and the Englishmen. Unfortunately, the African lost this one due to Britain’s more established, organized, and modernized military weaponry. This resulted in an even more sense of possession over South African’s land. Remember, the British already started to claim South Africa. This started out with the mistreatment of the natives in South Africa and the taxation of those natives. Taxation is one of the practices that allowed for colonialism to work. Taxation of land, crops, properties, etc. This is the economic gain I explained earlier, one of the reasons why colonialism was so progressive. Kumalo understood how detrimental this colonial conquest has been for his country. He knew how helpful the British have been with bringing their innovations to Africa but he still believed that they were more destructive than beneficial to their society. The taxation caused many natives poverty and starvation, all while not being able to afford to use these new British inventions.
Another foul outcome of this Berlin conference is the Maji Maji Rebellion, this lasted from 1905 to 1907. The people of Tanganyika were being treated poorly, heavily taxed, and forced into extreme labor under the German rule. After a couple of years of mistreatment, the people of Tanganyika had enough. Kinjikitile Ngawale, who was a spirit medium at the time, used magic water (Maji Maji) as protection against the colonial armies. According to the African oral testimonies about the Maji Maji uprising, many of the people of Tanganyika were discouraged. Many years passed by where the were under the rule of the Germans. (African Oral Testimonies about the Maji Maji Uprising of 1905 recorded in the 1960s, 1960, p.274) They understood that they did not want to be under German rule. They wanted out of colonial conquest, and there way out included fighting for their independence. However, Kinjikitile arrived and spoke on how the Maji Maji would be the main component in getting them from under the German rule. However, the people of Tanganyika lost to the Germans because at the end they did not gain their independence.
Many times Africans resistance to colonialism ended up in defeat for the Africans. However, Ethiopia were able to successfully resist against the Italian invasion. During the colonial period, the very imperialistic country, Italy, invaded Nigeria, so the Ethiopians resisted for their independence in return. The Battle of Adwa became the result of the disputes over the Treaty of Wichale. The Ethiopian troops were able to defeat the Italian army in the Battle of Adwa. And ever since they’ve been independent for the rest of the period until 1935, where Mussolini, the ruler of Italy, launched another invasion to avenge the Battle of Adwa.
To conclude, the colonization of Africa prolonged through the 19th and 20th century as way to take advantage of Africa’s resources. After the industrialization of Africa happened, the Berlin conference came along. The Berlin conference indicated that the continent wasn’t for the natives there but for the intruders, for their own economic gain, which explains why no African leaders were invited. No matter how much it seems like Europeans leaders were in cahoots with African rulers, their initial reason for even colonizing Africa is to use up their resources for their own benefit. This is accounted for through the personal testimonies of the Africans who have experienced or live through this colonial period. As stated before, many Africans didn’t agree with the colonial conquest, they wanted their independence, as they should have because its their country, their continent.