IBH19 HL Blog Post

Colonial systems with the goal of preserving African political systems, traditions and cultures were more virtuous than those that did not.

British colonial systems considered African systems and culture more than those of the French or the Portuguese. In Nigeria, for example, indirect rule was used where emirs in the North would maintain power and obey to British colonial officers on how to lead their people. This, however, does not mean that the British’s goal was to preserve African political systems and traditions and cultures. Neither one of the colonial powers previously mentioned had or maintained this goal throughout their time in power in Africa. Every colonial power came in Africa with the economic goal of enriching their sovereign state, while the British also included the idea of the Dual Mandate. This meant that they prioritised the development of their colony through infrastructure as well as education. Frederick Lugard, the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, believed in civilising the people of Nigeria through science without changing the way they live or think. This is the closest a colonial officer got to prioritising the preservation of systems already in place in the colony. Nigeria and the Gold Coast proved to be two of the most successful colonies in Africa through the exports of gold, palm oil, cocoa, and cotton. They use of missionaries in southern Nigeria also led to a high literacy rate compared to other colonies in Africa. They prepared their colonies for independence by giving educated natives administrative power.

In comparison, Angoulvant, who was the governor of French West Africa, did not believe in giving freedom to natives. In 1908, he expressed his use of direct rule in his colonies; he believed that the previous lives of Africans made them unable to share their political beliefs; he therefore made it his goal to change the “Negro mentality” of Africans by subduing their mental and physical forms of resistance towards leaders. The French were to carry out their civilising mission with the mentality that they were helping the Africans, which did not understand what was right or wrong for them. French West Africa was not as successful economically as Nigeria or the Gold Coast. The exports of peanuts did was not a priority to the French, which is why is didn’t not lead to economic superiority. They also gave natives they considered “assimilated” administrative power, although this stripped them of their culture.

Of the three nations mentioned earlier, Portugal was the least worried about native systems and culture. They did not care much for the rights of locals and therefore did not give them any administrative authority. In Angola and Mozambique, almost all natives were workers whose lives did not matter to the governing body. They used forced labor and did not pay their workers at all. There were also no schools in either country, which led to a 3% literacy rate in Angola and 2% in Mozambique by 1950. Because they did not care for local systems or cultures, Portuguese colonies were clearly not as virtuous as British colonies. They did not ratify the International Labor Organization’s convention to suppress forced labor until 1956, which shows reinforces this idea.

Only Britain somewhat had the goal of preserving systems already in place in their colonies, which then led to them being much more virtuous than the French or the Portuguese, who in comparison did not care for such ideals.

2 comments

  1. 19kasik · December 11, 2017 at 8:46 am ·

    Hi Tidiane,
    Your post was highly informative and you included relevant evidence to back up your claims. I thought your blog post was concise and very well structured, focusing on the prompt throughout. You correctly referred back to the prompt at the end of each paragraph, but I think maybe you could have made the link to the prompt more direct. I felt like the reason “why” colonies that were culturally and politically more preserved were more virtuous was not outlined quite clear enough.

  2. 19hiroe · December 11, 2017 at 8:54 am ·

    Hi Tidiane,

    I appreciate how you talked about social developments, specifically referring to an educational aspect, established by the British colonial system, and how you considered this aspect very important than another. I like how you made comparisons between three countries regarding social and economic aspects, with some reference to political structure in three countries. I would like to know about the major difference between the Portuguese political structure in its colonies in comparison to the French political administration, since those two resemble each other in a way they did not gave any authorities to the colonized people to govern unlike the British system.
    Another question I have is, what do you think is the major tradition that was preserved with the British colonial system but not the French and the Portuguese?
    Your blog post is organised and clear. I enjoyed reading your post.

    Hiromi