DBQ: Imperialism and Globalism in Africa

Explain, using the documents below and your own knowledge, how Imperialism lasting from the 19th Century through the mid 20th Century in Africa shaped globalism’s impact on the continent.

DOCUMENT A: Political cartoon, Punch Magazine c. early 20th Century

Document B: A child victim of Belgian atrocities in Congo stands with a missionary, Congo, ca. 1890-1910

Document C: Letter from missionary John Harris to King Leopold II’s chief agent in the Congo:

"I have just returned from a journey inland to the village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable. I was so moved, Your Excellency, by the people's stories that I took the liberty of promising them that in future you will only kill them for crimes they commit."

Document D: Excerpt from Kwame Nkrumah: An Independent Africa, 1961:

For centuries, Europeans dominated the African continent. The white man arrogated to himself the right to rule and to be obeyed by the non-white; his missions; he claimed, was to "civilize" Africa. Under this cloak, the Europeans robbed the continent of vast riches and inflicted unimaginable suffering on the African people....It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world...Never before have a people had within their grasp an opportunity for developing a continent endowed with so much wealth. Individually, the independent states of Africa, some of them potentially rich, others poor can do little for their people. Together, by mutual help they can achieve much......There is a tide in the affairs of every people when the moment strikes for political action. Such was the moment in the history of the United States of America when the Founding Fathers saw beyond the petty wranglings of the separate states and created a Union. This is our chance. We must act now.

Document E: George H.T. Kimble, in a 1962 New York Times Magazine article, “Colonialism: the Good, the Bad, the Lessons,” gives his point of view.

. . . they [the colonial powers] failed to provide the African with sufficient [preparation] . . . None of the newly independent countries had enough skilled African administrators to run their own . . . [or] enough African technicians to keep the public utilities working. . . . And no country had an electorate that knew what independence was all about. . . . For all its faults, colonial government provided security of person and property in lands that had known little or either. . . . It was the colonial powers who were largely responsible for the opening of the region to the lumberman, miner, planter, and other men of means without whom its wealth would be continued to lie fallow [uncultivated].

Document F: The Rhodes Colossus: Striding From Cape Town to Cairo From the British magazine Punch, 1892

Document G: From: Cecil Rhodes, Confessions of Faith, 1877

I contend that we [Britons] are the finest race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race…It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, the most human, most honourable race the world possesses.

Document H: Excerpt, United Nations Millennium Report

"The greatest challenge we face today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world's people, instead of leaving billions of them behind in squalor. Inclusive globalization must be built on the great enabling force of the market, but market forces alone will not achieve it. It requires a broader effort to create a shared future, based upon our common humanity in all its diversity."

Document I: The United Nations Declaration Against Colonialism (1960)

The General Assembly, mindful of the determination proclaimed by the peoples of the world in the Charter of the United Nations to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom...declares that:

1. the subjection of the people to alien subjugation, domination, and exploitation constitutes a denial of a fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and cooperation.

2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development.

3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social, or educational preparedness should never serve as pretext for delaying independence.

4. All armed action or repressive measures of all kinds directed against dependent peoples shall cease in order to enable them to exercise peacefully and freely their right to complete independence.

Document J: Rwandan Identity Card, 1994, specifying the cardholding woman as a Tutsi. These cards were introduced by the Belgians in the 1930s.

Document K: Excerpt, Hutu Ten Commandments, 1990:

1. Every Hutu should know that a Tutsi woman, whoever she is, works for the interest of her Tutsi ethnic group. As a result, we shall consider a traitor any Hutu who

marries a Tutsi woman befriends a Tutsi woman employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine.

2. Every Hutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more suitable and conscientious in their role as woman, wife and mother of the family. Are they not beautiful, good secretaries and more honest?3. Hutu women, be vigilant and try to bring your husbands, brothers and sons back to reason.4. Every Hutu should know that every Tutsi is dishonest in business. His only aim is the supremacy of his ethnic group. As a result, any Hutu who does the following is a traitor:

makes a partnership with Tutsi in business

invests his money or the government's money in a Tutsi enterprise lends or borrows money from a Tutsi gives favours to Tutsi in business (obtaining import licenses, bank loans,

construction sites, public markets, etc.).

Document L: Excerpt, UN Failed Rwanda, AP Article, December 16, 1999But the report points most of its criticism at how the United Nations - and in particular its Security Council members - reacted to the killings once they started. There was little political will within the council, particularly from the United States, to authorize a robust peacekeeping force in the months after the failed Somalia mission, that left 18 Americans dead. After rampaging killers in Rwanda killed 10 Belgian peacekeepers at the beginning of the genocide, there was little will to keep the peacekeepers in place, much less strengthen their mandate.

The departure of peacekeepers from a school where thousands of civilians had massed hoping for protection was cited by the report as one of the main reasons for the enduring bitterness Rwandans feel Thursday toward the United Nations because of the ensuing massacre there. "The manner in which the troops left, including attempts to pretend to the refugees that they were not in fact leaving, was disgraceful," the report said.

Document M:

Document N:

Document O: Excerpt: Why Foreign Aid is Hurting Africa, by Dambisa Moyo. Wall Street Journal, March 21, 2009:

Giving alms to Africa remains one of the biggest ideas of our time -- millions march for it, governments are judged by it, celebrities proselytize the need for it. Calls for more aid to Africa are growing louder, with advocates pushing for doubling the roughly $50 billion of international assistance that already goes to Africa each year.

Yet evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment. It's increased the risk of civil conflict and

unrest (the fact that over 60% of sub-Saharan Africa's population is under the age of 24 with few economic prospects is a cause for worry). Aid is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.

Few will deny that there is a clear moral imperative for humanitarian and charity-based aid to step in when necessary, such as during the 2004 tsunami in Asia. Nevertheless, it's worth reminding ourselves what emergency and charity-based aid can and cannot do. Aid-supported scholarships have certainly helped send African girls to school (never mind that they won't be able to find a job in their own countries once they have graduated). This kind of aid can provide band-aid solutions to alleviate immediate suffering, but by its very nature cannot be the platform for long-term sustainable growth.