Short Paper assignment
Due Dates:
Friday, July 15 by 11:59pm on Blackboard
Length:
500-600 words (approximately 2 pages double-spaced)
Questions:
How did “new” British imperialism work/function in sub-Saharan Africa as shown in
Abina and the accompanying documents? How did the British act (politically,
economically, culturally)? Why were they there? How did the Africans respond?
Details:
You should address TWO different types of imperialism from the following list (we
will discuss these on July 11):
Colonial governmental rule by the British, either direct or indirect
instances of the British legal system being used in the colony
the "civilizing mission"
cultural and racial "mixing"
instances of assimilation by Africans or part-Africans to British culture/society
Economic domination by the British
You should consider and briefly summarize the particulars with two
examples/situation (or “scenes”) from Abina and the Important Men but more
importantly, you should discuss extensively how those examples/situations/scenes
fit into the historical context of British imperialism in sub-Sahara Africa.
Sources:
First, you obviously MUST use Abina and the Important Men to discuss the above. You
must ALSO use BOTH of the following primary documents in some way (likely as
corroboration to the examples from Abina but also possibly as further context):
1. David Livingstone’s speech to Cambridge University (1857)
2. Ndansi Kumalo, "On the British Incursion in Zimbabwe" (1932)
Finally, you will also need to use my lecture from July 11 and all videos and textbook
pages related to imperialism in Africa for background and framing purposes.
I.
Introduction
Thesis statement: The African continent got affected immensely by the British control;
the British used Africa for producing and selling goods after colonization, but later
banned the practice of slaveholding.
II.
British Imperialism
The main reason as to why British and Africa fought against each other is because British
demanded slave dealing and amber.
Later, slavery was condemned by many missionaries and leaders, therefore British
decided to prohibit slave trading because it was inhumane.
III.
Great Britain banned slaveholding
Great Britain announced the end of bondage and slave trafficking.
However, some Africans also adopted slavery, an act that was against their moral culture.
IV.
Conclusion: In conclusion, prohibition of slavery and slave dealing became a law. All the
efforts to make it a law were demonstrated by the British administration.
Restate Thesis: British imperialism impacted the African continent vastly and the effect
changed the lives of Africans irrefutably or damagingly.
Final Thoughts: Even though slavery was shunned, still part of it is practiced in the
African society as evidenced in Abina’s scenario.
References
Brian J Griffith (January 2011). Abina and the important Men retrieved from
http//:www.abina.org
Maurice
C
(May
2013).
David
Livingstone’s
speech
retrieved
from
http//:www.davidlivingstone2013.blogspot.com
John chadlock (September 6th 2012). The Missionaries in Africa retrieved from
http//:www.historyworld.net
David Livingstone's Cambridge Speech of December 1857
In December 1856, David Livingstone returned to England after spending fifteen years in
Southern and Central Africa. A year later on the 4th of December, he gave a speech to
students at Cambridge University. Below is that speech, with an introductory paragraph
written by a commentator:
David Livingstone (1813-1873), the Scottish missionary and explorer of Africa, personified
for Britain the higher cause of imperialism. Between 1840 and 1873, Livingstone traversed
nearly a third of Africa, missionizing Christianity, opposing the persistent slave trade, and
recording the geography and ethnographic customs of its peoples. His achievement and his selfeffacing devotion to opening up Africa to commerce and Christianity provided inspiration to a
nineteenth-century British public in search of a moral center to its imperialist policies in Africa.
My object in going into the country south of the desert [sub-Sahara Africa] was to instruct the
natives in a knowledge of Christianity, but many circumstances prevented my living amongst
them more than seven years, amongst which were considerations arising out of the slave system
carried on by the Dutch Boers. I resolved to go into the country beyond, and soon found that, for
the purposes of commerce, it was necessary to have a path to the sea. I might have gone on
instructing the natives in religion, but as civilization and Christianity must go on together, I was
obliged to find a path to the sea, in order that I should not sink to the level of the natives...
Angola is wonderfully fertile, producing every kind of tropical plant in rank luxuriance. Passing
on to the valley of Quango, the stalk of the grass was as thick as a quill, and towered above my
head, although I was mounted on my ox; cotton is produced in great abundance, though merely
woven into common cloth; bananas and pineapples grow in great luxuriance; but the people
having no maritime communication, these advantages are almost lost...
My desire is to open a path to this district, that civilization, commerce, and Christianity
might find their way there. I consider that we made a great mistake, when we carried commerce
into India, in being ashamed of our Christianity; as a matter of common sense and good policy, it
is always best to appear in one's true character. In traveling through Africa, I might have
imitated certain Portuguese, and have passed for a chief; but I never attempted anything of the
sort, although endeavouring always to keep to the lessons of cleanliness rigidly instilled by my
mother long ago; the consequence was that the natives respected me for that quality, though
remaining dirty themselves...
A prospect is now before us of opening Africa for commerce and the Gospel. Providence
has been preparing the way...
The natives of Central Africa are very desirous of trading, but their only traffic is at present in
slaves, of which the poorer people have an unmitigated horror: it is therefore most desirable to
encourage the former principle, and thus open a way for the consumption of free productions,
and the introduction of Christianity and commerce. By encouraging the native propensity for
trade, the advantages that might be derived in a commercial point of view are incalculable; nor
should we lose sight of the inestimable blessings it is in our power to bestow upon the
unenlightened African, by giving him the light of Christianity. Those two pioneers of civilization
- Christianity and commerce - should ever be inseparable; and Englishmen should be warned by
the fruits of neglecting that principle as exemplified in the result of the management of Indian
affairs. By trading with Africa, also, we should at length be independent of slave-labour, and
thus discountenance practices so obnoxious to every Englishman.
Though the natives are not absolutely anxious to receive the Gospel, they are open to
Christian influences. Among the Bechuanas [a group in Central Africa] the Gospel was well
received. These people think it a crime to shed a tear, but I have seen some of them weep at the
recollection of their sins when God had opened their hearts to Christianity and repentance. It is
true that missionaries have difficulties to encounter; but what great enterprise was ever
accomplished without difficulty? It is deplorable to think that one of the noblest of our
missionary societies, the Church Missionary Society, is compelled to send to Germany for
missionaries, whilst other societies are amply supplied. Let this stain be wiped off. - The sort of
men who are wanted for missionaries are such as I see before me; men of education, standing,
enterprise, zeal, and piety. It is a mistake to suppose that any one, as long as he is pious, will do
for this office. Pioneers in every thing should be the ablest and best qualified men, not those of
small ability and education. This remark especially applies to the first teachers of Christian truth
in regions which may never have before been blest with the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ. In
the early ages the monasteries were the schools of Europe, and the monks were not ashamed to
hold the plough. The missionaries now take the place of those noble men, and we should not
hesitate to give up the small luxuries of life in order to carry knowledge and truth to them that
are in darkness. I hope that many of those whom I now address will embrace that honourable
career. Education has been given us from above for the purpose of bringing to the benighted the
knowledge of a Saviour. If you knew the satisfaction of performing such a duty, as well as the
gratitude to God which the missionary must always feel, in being chosen for so noble, so sacred
a calling, you would have no hesitation in embracing it.
For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an
office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can
that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our
God, which we can never repay?- Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in
healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a
glorious destiny hereafter? - Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is
emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger,
now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make
us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All
these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in, and for, us.
I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice
which HE made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us.
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