“Pax Colonia?”

““Pax Colonia?”Pax Colonia?”

Part 2

“Africans dance. They dance for joy, and they dance for grief; they dance for love and they dance for hate; … Far more exotic than their skin and their features is this characteristic of dancing; …

Perhaps all that paragraph should be put into the past tense, or rather into the passing tense….”

[Geoffrey Gorer, Africa Dances, 1949]

Education: ‘Becoming Education: ‘Becoming European’European’

Everywhere, being educated meant:

- speaking European languages

- wearing European clothes

- eating European food

- accepting European ideas - imbibing a European identity!

Education: ‘Becoming Education: ‘Becoming European’European’

- But what did being educated to ‘be European’ mean to a black African in Colonial Africa?

-What did it mean to significant class of ‘mulattos’ – children of European men and African women?

(See “Africa Dances: the Mulatto” in ‘Additional Readings’)

Living the European LifeLiving the European Life

“Can we object if a luckyfew copy a social life weourselves have created?”(South Africa, 1940s)

Congolese doctor withhis Family, 1933.

[NR Hunt, Colonial Lexicon, 1999: 83] Shepherd & Paver, AfricanContrasts, 1947: 253]

Civilization is … “Cooking”Civilization is … “Cooking”

“Cookery classes in Lovedale [misionary centre],CapeProvince, SA. Few Native girls have the advantage ofa training in domestic science; those who do make apt pupils” [RHW Shepherd & BG Paver, African Contrasts, 1947]

Growing up in the ColoniesGrowing up in the Colonies

“[In South Africa],only one Europeanchild in a thousandhas a European‘Nanny’.”

This kind of domesticlabour employedthousands of SouthAfrican women.

[RHW Shepherd & BG Paver, African Contrasts, 1947: 74]

Civilization is. . .“Good Civilization is. . .“Good Housekeeping”Housekeeping”

(above)Aburi Girls’s School (GoldCoast, 1898)(right) A set of “do-don’t” messagesabout good housekeeping – keepingfire and smoke from infants.

[Rev. D. Kemp, Nine Years at Gold Coast, 1898:204]

NR Hunt, Colonial Lexicon, 1999: 271]

““From the pace of the ox…”From the pace of the ox…”

South African men leaving the electric trainwhich has brought themfrom the ‘suburbs’(townships) into the citywhere they work.

“In a single generation,these people are expected toto step from the pace of theox to the tempo of moderncivilisation, where time,speed and proficiency arethe essence of progress”

[RHW Sheopherd & BG Paver, Sfrican Contrasts, 1947: 56]

‘‘Becoming European’ (cont.)Becoming European’ (cont.)

Francophone West Africa:

-policy of assilimiation provided avenue to become ‘Black Frenchman’

- policy not practical: by mid-1920s, over 13 million Africans in A.O.F.

-1926 fewer than 50,000 had achieved goal of citizenship, most of those in Senegal

- 1945 still fewer than 100,000


Shaped social and political profile of educated elite: e.g. Blaise Diagne (Senegal )

-Diagne became member of French Parliament. -tried to obtain French citizenship for all Senegalese; failed.-supported conscriptionWWI forced labour-saw colonialism as way forward ‘modernization’

(1872 – 1934)


British West Africa:

- “Social-hybrids”, “been-to’s” (as in ‘been to Europe’) characterized educated elite- accepted European beliefs about progress, modernization, role of ‘middle class’

- were well represented among professionals in main cities


-believed in need to use European concepts of unity, nationhood to overcome pre-colonial tribal divisions

- believed in need to impose European governmental systems to overcome pre-colonial multiplicity of polities and ruling systems (eg. National Congress of British West Africans, 1920)

- not broad based organizations


Pan-Africanism:

- West Africans who studied in Europe were introduced to ‘pan-africanism’

- leaders born in America, related to ‘Back to Africa’ movement (Edward Blyden, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Dubois)

- had no power but brought African colonial situation to world attention


Pan-Africanism:

- by mid-1920s, Africans decided that any plan for African progress had to be decided by Africans and directed from Africa

- turned to ideas about nationalism and national unity

Marcus Garvey and Pan-Marcus Garvey and Pan-AfricanismAfricanism

Universal Negro Improvement Association (founded 1917, Harlem):

The Universal Improvement Association represents the hopes and aspirations of the awakened Negro. Our desire is for a place in the world, not to disturb the tranquility of other men, but to lay down our burden and rest our weary backs and feet by the banks of the Niger and sing our songs and chant our hymns to the God of Ethiopia. . .

"Look to Africa for the crowning of a Black king; he shall be the Redeemer.“

[Garvey, New York, 1924]

http://www.raceandhistory.com/Historians/marcus_garvey.htm




East and Central Africa:

-in settler colonies, no need for professional teachers, lawyers, administrators

- education created large semi-skilled class: technicians, civil servants, office workers

- most had a ‘glass ceiling’ determined by race


South Africa:

-had longer history of educated Africans: professionals numerous but segregationist laws still applied

-1912 South African Native National Congress founded: believed in British ideals

-1923 ANC small, elite group: internal dissensions impeded progress

The SANNC 1912The SANNC 1912

[J Schadeberg, ed. Nelson Mandela and the Rise of the ANC 1990: 14]

These men were typical of the early educatedelite, as alienated from their fellow Africans as from the British they failed to impress.

Natives’ Representative Natives’ Representative CouncilCouncil

This council was established in 1936 to considerlegislation affecting the Native Peoples of theSouth African Union.

[Shepherd & Paver, African Contrasts, 217]


Christianity, education, search for well-paying work commensurate with education:

- took Africans into towns, along with uneducated, unskilled relatives

- for some, opportunity to escape control of elders, former masters, men

- for others, chance to escape from social status: anonymity


Christianity, education, search for well-paying work commensurate with education--

- in practice, town rarely lived up to promises: gave rise to re-invented village communities, self-help groups, dependency relations, new forms of poverty.

- few were actually able to live ‘like Europeans’

‘‘Becoming…’: health and Becoming…’: health and medicinemedicine

Colonialism also realized in health, nutrition, practice of medicine:

-cross cut gender roles in households, age-grades, social hierarchy, and powerful role traditional healers (men and women)

-initially men drawn into health care

-later women: mid-wives, nurses.

- European belief system intruded at most basic and personal level

Traditional Medicine PersistsTraditional Medicine Persists

Traditional treatments could still be purchased.Here, “discussion on the curative powers of dried sand-shark”.


Traditional Medicine PersistsTraditional Medicine Persists

Traditional Healer

“Witch Doctress whose sombre figure still throws a dark shadow of ignorance and fear over the lives of many.”


““New” Medicine New” Medicine

Students spend a year at Fort Hare, then go on to Johannesburg for training as “Medical Aids”.

[Shepherd & Paver, African Contrasts, 128;

““New” MedicineNew” Medicine

Native Nurses c.1930 working for Union Miniere du Haut-Katanga.(Congo)

NR Hunt, A Colonial Lexicon of Birth Ritual, 1999: 177]

““New” MedicineNew” Medicine

Yakusu (Congolese) mid-wives c.1931

NR Hunt, A Colonial Lexicon of Birth Ritual, 1999: 212

‘‘No Simple Act…’No Simple Act…’

"Neither imperialism nor colonialism is a simple act of accumulation and acquisition… Out of imperialism, notions about culture were classified, reinforced, criticized or rejected."

[Culture and Imperialism, Edward W. Said]

Documents

“Pax Colonia?”