The story of non-Africans visiting Africa in the hope of finding wealth was not introduced by the Europeans. In fact many years before, People from Asia and Far East were visiting Africa many hundreds of years before. The first Europeans who visited Africa were the Portuguese who took back with them stories of immense wealth in Africa both in its natural resources and slaves.
In fact the first Portuguese who came to Africa took back with him two black captives to the King as a gift and of course as evidence of his setting foot in the black continent.
But none had a greater effect to the stability or lack of the same to Africa than the mass arrival of Europeans in the late 19th century. Most of the Africa we know today, we must admit, was completely different and is as it is because of the arrival of the Europeans and subsequent partition of Africa after the Berlin Conference.
As a matter of fact apart from the Ancient Kingdom of Ethiopia and the freed slaves state of Liberia, every other nation in Africa had fallen into imperial rule by the beginning of the 20th century.
Of course some think the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was more of a turning point of Africa than the scramble and partition but nothing can be further from fact.
But with the efforts to illuminate the ‘Dark Continent’ came some of the most dramatic conflicts, because as is now true today, apart from color, every man is equal, no one can claim absolute authority over another and once freedom is denied, the oppressed demands it at all costs.
In the course of several articles, we shall try to explore the good the bad and the ugly face of the imperialists and their reign in Africa.
Most Africans have healed from the effects of colonization and most of us are of the free generation. But some of our fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers and even brothers faced the goods and bads of colonialism first hand.
We will let you the reader determine if colonialism made or broke Africa in the course of the following articles.
When European colonists landed in Africa, it was all about one thing, grab as much territory as you could and make it yours, by any means necessary. Even before the Berlin Conference, most of African land was already divided among the European and conflicts between them and the natives of the land they had now made theirs were taking shape The violent collisions pitted the well-equipped, well organized and highly disciplined armies of the Europeans with the too often weak armies of people of the African continent. They were no match. More often than not, entire African armies were annihilated wholesomely and their people subdued almost as fast as the battles began. Famous Anglo-French write Hilaire Bellocr even confidently wrote that “Whatever happens, we have the Maxim gun, and they have not” Well, except that the Maxim gun sometimes failed terribly when it faced the unbridled determination, bravery and the sheer spirit of Africans. Downright unexpected upsets sometimes to
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