[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:21.83,0:00:51.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Music Music and Singing Music>> The West Coast of Africa looking today much as
Dialogue: 0,0:01:31.85,0:01:36.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it did 100 years ago. At that time, the old evils of the slave trade had become
Dialogue: 0,0:01:36.95,0:01:41.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a distant though disgraceful memory. But there now opened a new chapter of
Dialogue: 0,0:01:42.00,0:01:47.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,confrontation along these tropical shores. In past years, Europeans had come
Dialogue: 0,0:01:47.11,0:01:54.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,here for profitable business. Now they wanted more, much more. Old trading
Dialogue: 0,0:01:54.70,0:02:00.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,posts, like this one, had long been the scene of a partnership between maritime
Dialogue: 0,0:02:00.11,0:02:06.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,traders from Europe and local Africans.By the 1880s, that old partnership was
Dialogue: 0,0:02:06.25,0:02:12.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being swept away in a dramatic change,the outcome of a new European drive for
Dialogue: 0,0:02:12.44,0:02:18.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,overseas empire. Industrialized countries led by France and Britain had begun to
Dialogue: 0,0:02:18.78,0:02:24.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,invade the black continent,each hoping for new sources of raw materials for its
Dialogue: 0,0:02:24.27,0:02:30.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,factories, new markets for its manufacturers, and new positions of advantage
Dialogue: 0,0:02:30.30,0:02:37.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,against its rivals. This was called the scramble for Africa. By 1914, only two
Dialogue: 0,0:02:37.10,0:02:42.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,countries remained outside European possession, Liberia in the west and Ethiopia
Dialogue: 0,0:02:42.82,0:02:48.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the east. Britain had seized the lion's share of control: Egypt and the Sudan
Dialogue: 0,0:02:48.43,0:02:53.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the north, the immense wealth of South Africa, valuable colonies like
Dialogue: 0,0:02:53.26,0:02:59.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Rhodesia and Kenya, and richly populated territories such as Nigeria and the
Dialogue: 0,0:02:59.34,0:03:07.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Gold Coast. France had invaded Algeria in the 1830s. Now after new wars of
Dialogue: 0,0:03:07.22,0:03:12.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,conquest, she added more colonies to her empire south of the Sahara, including
Dialogue: 0,0:03:12.43,0:03:20.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the island of Madagascar.Little Portugal carved out of two vast colonies, Angola
Dialogue: 0,0:03:20.04,0:03:25.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and Mozambique, while the imperial Germany took the Cameroons and southwest
Dialogue: 0,0:03:25.09,0:03:32.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Africa, and on the East Coast Tanganyika. The vast Congo basin fell to King
Dialogue: 0,0:03:32.88,0:03:40.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Leopold of the Belgians.Italy and Spain completed the enclosure. The fate of the
Dialogue: 0,0:03:40.14,0:03:48.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,continent was utterly changed. Between the colonizing powers themselves, the
Dialogue: 0,0:03:48.17,0:03:54.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,carve-up was peaceful.But their rivalry was intense. In 1884, a congress of the
Dialogue: 0,0:03:54.69,0:04:00.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,competing governments met in Berlin to settle their disputes. Germany's Iron
Dialogue: 0,0:04:00.10,0:04:06.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Chancellor of Bismarck was there. And active behind the scenes was the ambitious
Dialogue: 0,0:04:06.88,0:04:12.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Belgian king. He spoke for them all when he said, "I am determined to get my
Dialogue: 0,0:04:12.04,0:04:18.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,share of this magnificent African cake. Any power that could occupy African soil
Dialogue: 0,0:04:18.83,0:04:33.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,could effectively claim it."Music Now the task was to stake out frontiers in
Dialogue: 0,0:04:33.57,0:04:38.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,utterly uncharted land. Said the French prime minister, "We have embarked on a
Dialogue: 0,0:04:38.61,0:04:43.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,gigantic steeplechase into the unknown." The British Prime Minister Lord
Dialogue: 0,0:04:43.19,0:04:48.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Salisbury was to say of this period,"We've been engaged in drawing lines on maps
Dialogue: 0,0:04:48.83,0:04:53.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where no man's foot has ever trod.We've been giving away mountains and rivers
Dialogue: 0,0:04:53.23,0:04:57.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and lakes to each other, only hindered by the small impediment that we never
Dialogue: 0,0:04:57.28,0:05:07.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,knew exactly where we were."Music The great game was to get hold of places and
Dialogue: 0,0:05:07.80,0:05:12.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,positions of advantage over rivals,no matter what irrational frontiers might
Dialogue: 0,0:05:12.91,0:05:22.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,result. One of the most absurd cases was the magnificent Gambia River. Britain
Dialogue: 0,0:05:22.69,0:05:27.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,had long held Bathurst, Banjul today,and was determined to keep this river route
Dialogue: 0,0:05:27.45,0:05:33.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to the interior. But France,invading from the West Coast, enclosed all the
Dialogue: 0,0:05:33.09,0:05:38.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,territories surrounding the Gambia River in her new colony of Senegal. So the
Dialogue: 0,0:05:38.48,0:05:43.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,French was naturally eager to obtain the Gambia River. They offered Britain in
Dialogue: 0,0:05:43.10,0:05:48.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,exchange the much larger and richer Ivory Coast. But the British Parliament
Dialogue: 0,0:05:48.74,0:05:55.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,insisted on keeping the Gambia,thus dividing the peoples of the region. And the
Dialogue: 0,0:05:55.07,0:06:02.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,result and is a country that is 300 miles long but never more than 30 miles
Dialogue: 0,0:06:02.60,0:06:12.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,wide.Conversations Indistinct What the African inhabitants might think of this
Dialogue: 0,0:06:12.88,0:06:18.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,colonial carve-up was never asked. The European idea in the words of one British
Dialogue: 0,0:06:18.36,0:06:23.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,governor was to seize African territory and then as much as possible rule the
Dialogue: 0,0:06:23.22,0:06:29.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,country as if there were no inhabitants.Conversations Indistinct
Dialogue: 0,0:06:29.82,0:06:34.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In fact, European contempt for Africans now reached new depths. And no wonder;
Dialogue: 0,0:06:34.31,0:06:40.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for how otherwise and by asserting that Africans were helpless children, lazy
Dialogue: 0,0:06:40.41,0:06:44.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,savages could Christian Europe justify taking their countries away from them?
Dialogue: 0,0:06:44.49,0:06:57.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Singing The helpless children meanwhile sang their own version of a famous hymn,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:57.72,0:07:02.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Onward, Christian soldiers. On to heathen lands. Prayer book in your pockets.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:02.24,0:07:07.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Rifles in your hands. Take the happy tidings where trade can be done; spread the
Dialogue: 0,0:07:07.15,0:07:16.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,peaceful gospel with a Gatling gun.Music The European invasions were widely
Dialogue: 0,0:07:16.27,0:07:21.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,resisted. Conquest was never easy. And sometimes as these old drawings and
Dialogue: 0,0:07:21.92,0:07:27.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,photographs testify, conquests led to a ruthless killing that later generations
Dialogue: 0,0:07:27.31,0:07:48.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,would prefer to forget.Drums Resistance took many shapes. In French West
Dialogue: 0,0:07:48.31,0:07:53.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Africa, a focal point was found in Muslim loyalties. Many heroes, still
Dialogue: 0,0:07:53.91,0:08:01.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,unforgotten, came on that scene. Some, like the Senegalese religious leader
Dialogue: 0,0:08:01.62,0:08:11.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Amadou Bamba, offered the way of peace but was still sent into exile. Others,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:11.74,0:08:14.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,like the fierce warrior leader Samori, fought off
Dialogue: 0,0:08:14.30,0:08:21.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,French attack after attack and was crushed and exiled only after years of war.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:22.00,0:08:27.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Death took many, strong or weak. With the skulls of earlier wars displayed in
Dialogue: 0,0:08:27.55,0:08:32.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,their capital, Kumasi, the powerful Ashanti nation ruled over most of modern
Dialogue: 0,0:08:32.06,0:08:38.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Ghana. Led by their kings who had the title of Asantehene, they had long
Dialogue: 0,0:08:38.47,0:08:43.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,defended their country against Britain. But now they desperately wanted a
Dialogue: 0,0:08:43.57,0:08:49.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,peaceful settlement. In 1895, fearing a disastrous war with Britain, King
Dialogue: 0,0:08:49.55,0:08:54.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Prempeh made a strong bid for peace from his palace here at Kumasi. He offered
Dialogue: 0,0:08:54.93,0:08:59.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the British the right to establish in Ashanti a chartered company with all the
Dialogue: 0,0:08:59.07,0:09:04.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,concessions, the privilege that such a company could possibly desire. But it
Dialogue: 0,0:09:04.79,0:09:10.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,wasn't enough, for the British now wanted territorial possession as well as
Dialogue: 0,0:09:10.54,0:09:18.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,privilege.Gunfire The Ashanti nation had already fought long, hard battles
Dialogue: 0,0:09:18.30,0:09:24.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,against the British.But this time, in 1896, they decided to surrender.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:24.48,0:09:34.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Gunfire In a ceremony of deliberate humiliation, the king was made to kiss the
Dialogue: 0,0:09:34.11,0:09:39.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,British commander's boot, and then sent into exile. But it wasn't the end of the
Dialogue: 0,0:09:39.17,0:09:43.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,story.The British now blundered. A new British governor, Sir Frederick Hodgson,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:43.55,0:09:48.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,decided that he had to get possession of the sacred golden stool, symbol of the
Dialogue: 0,0:09:48.23,0:09:53.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Ashanti Nation's soul. Arriving at the British fort here in Kumasi, he ordered
Dialogue: 0,0:09:53.20,0:09:58.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the assembled chiefs to hand the stool over. Worse still, he demanded the right
Dialogue: 0,0:09:58.39,0:10:03.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to sit on it, something that no person had ever been allowed to do, not even the
Dialogue: 0,0:10:03.92,0:10:14.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,king himself.Gunfire To Hodgson's final insult, the Ashanti replied with war.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:14.26,0:10:20.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This little fort at Kumasi is what the British had built, just in case, and now
Dialogue: 0,0:10:20.27,0:10:25.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they sorely needed it. The few dozen British inmates of the fort were besieged
Dialogue: 0,0:10:25.75,0:10:36.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for months, and had to eat rats to stay alive. Hodgson's act of folly had
Dialogue: 0,0:10:36.52,0:10:41.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,exacted a bitter price.Efforts to send in relief from the coast were repeatedly
Dialogue: 0,0:10:41.56,0:10:47.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,frustrated by Ashanti resistance, until finally, the governor and his wife got
Dialogue: 0,0:10:47.11,0:10:52.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,away to the coast, and the absurd but tragic affair could be closed. This ended
Dialogue: 0,0:10:52.64,0:10:57.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,war between Britain and Ashanti, and a year later, in 1901, the British quietly
Dialogue: 0,0:10:57.84,0:11:03.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,annexed the country,which became part of the colony of the Gold Coast. All over
Dialogue: 0,0:11:03.93,0:11:09.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Africa, the new military technology of automatic guns gave easy victories to the
Dialogue: 0,0:11:09.35,0:11:22.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,invaders.Singing Background Singing Countless resisters died, many thousands at
Dialogue: 0,0:11:22.69,0:11:30.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the single battle of Omdurman, in Britain's conquest of the Sudan. Meanwhile, in
Dialogue: 0,0:11:30.06,0:11:35.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,another part of the Sudan, the French were also scoring victories. For the most
Dialogue: 0,0:11:35.93,0:11:41.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,part, public opinion rejoiced, for were these not victories over an inferior
Dialogue: 0,0:11:41.48,0:11:55.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,species, a kind of joke humanity? There were some critics, but not many, and
Dialogue: 0,0:11:55.88,0:11:58.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,their voice was ignored or silenced. What really mattered was to do down one's
Dialogue: 0,0:11:58.76,0:12:04.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,European rivals:if you were British, to get the better of the French in West
Dialogue: 0,0:12:04.60,0:12:11.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Africa, or of the Germans in East Africa, while orphans like little Uganda were
Dialogue: 0,0:12:11.32,0:12:19.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,left on the protective doorstep of Father John Bull. Even before 1900, there
Dialogue: 0,0:12:19.94,0:12:25.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,came a new source of conflict: settlers from Europe, French in the far north,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:25.36,0:12:30.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Dutch, and then British in the far south, and some Germans. Other settlers were
Dialogue: 0,0:12:30.36,0:12:35.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,attracted to the good farming land of the east, to Tanganyika, northern and
Dialogue: 0,0:12:35.58,0:12:42.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,southern Rhodesia, and the British territories of Uganda and Kenya. Once again,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:42.14,0:12:48.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,nobody asked permission. An early French governor had laid down the Golden Rule:
Dialogue: 0,0:12:48.59,0:12:52.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Wherever good water and fertile land are found," he said, "settlers must be
Dialogue: 0,0:12:52.82,0:12:58.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,installed without questioning whose land it may be." The settlers, not
Dialogue: 0,0:12:58.58,0:13:06.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,surprisingly, agreed. The next step in East Africa was to build a railway from
Dialogue: 0,0:13:06.16,0:13:14.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the coast to the interior. The line was completed in 1901, and millions of acres
Dialogue: 0,0:13:14.31,0:13:19.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of good farming land in Kenya were opened to white ownership and settlement for
Dialogue: 0,0:13:19.16,0:13:24.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the buying price of next to nothing. These white strangers, oddly enough, were
Dialogue: 0,0:13:24.80,0:13:30.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at first welcomed by the African inhabitants. But the welcome didn't last for
Dialogue: 0,0:13:30.47,0:13:36.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,long, for they soon discovered that colonial government wanted them to give
Dialogue: 0,0:13:36.15,0:13:43.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,things, above all their land, and their labor. These colonial demands provoked a
Dialogue: 0,0:13:43.28,0:13:48.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,repeated resistance. And against that resistance, the colonial government, with
Dialogue: 0,0:13:48.04,0:13:52.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,white settlers arriving in ever larger numbers from Britain, waged a war with
Dialogue: 0,0:13:52.84,0:14:03.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,little mercy, and of course with rifles and machine guns against spears and
Dialogue: 0,0:14:03.87,0:14:19.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,arrows.Drums This beating down of a sometimes violent and desperate African
Dialogue: 0,0:14:20.00,0:14:25.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,protest was called pacification, or less politely, hammering. A British officer
Dialogue: 0,0:14:25.34,0:14:28.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then fighting in Kenya kept a sadly instructive diary.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:28.38,0:14:35.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> "Marched into Fort Hall, and the expedition comes to an end. To my mind, the
Dialogue: 0,0:14:35.28,0:14:39.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,people of the Embu have not been sufficiently hammered, and I should like to go
Dialogue: 0,0:14:39.04,0:14:43.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,back at once and have another go at them. During the first phase of our
Dialogue: 0,0:14:43.38,0:14:48.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,expedition against the Iriani, we killed 797 niggers, and during the second
Dialogue: 0,0:14:48.83,0:14:56.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,phase, against the Embu, we killed about 250.">> There was, in fact, much more
Dialogue: 0,0:14:56.61,0:15:01.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the same thing. In a sixth campaign against the Kenya Nandi, for example,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:01.49,0:15:07.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,British troops reported killing 1117 people,besides seizing all their
Dialogue: 0,0:15:07.22,0:15:16.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,livestock. In 1906, a junior British minister in London cabled this protest: "
Dialogue: 0,0:15:16.84,0:15:21.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Surely it cannot be necessary to go on killing these defenseless people on such
Dialogue: 0,0:15:21.74,0:15:27.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,an enormous scale." The minister's name was Winston Churchill, but on that
Dialogue: 0,0:15:27.69,0:15:57.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,occasion, his intervention had no effect.Music By 1915, about four million acres
Dialogue: 0,0:16:42.06,0:16:47.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of African farming land in central Kenya had been given to about one thousand
Dialogue: 0,0:16:47.33,0:16:53.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,British settlers. By the 1920s, about half of the able-bodied men of Kenya's two
Dialogue: 0,0:16:53.74,0:16:58.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,largest founding peoples, the Kikuyu and the Luhya, were working as laborers for
Dialogue: 0,0:16:58.42,0:17:05.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,British newcomers. How was that done? The answer, once again, was something new
Dialogue: 0,0:17:05.33,0:17:11.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in Kenya: taxation. To cultivate these splendid acres, it was necessary to make
Dialogue: 0,0:17:11.30,0:17:17.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Africans pay taxes in cash. Having no money economy of their own, Africans could
Dialogue: 0,0:17:17.69,0:17:25.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,pay tax in cash only if they went to work for a European wage. An old Masai
Dialogue: 0,0:17:25.76,0:17:55.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,recalls those early days. The Masai proved particularly good at dodging the
Dialogue: 0,0:18:03.66,0:18:08.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,payment of the new taxes, so the colonial government thought it should send some
Dialogue: 0,0:18:08.61,0:18:13.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of these apparently idle warriors to school, so as to turn them, if possible,
Dialogue: 0,0:18:13.59,0:18:41.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,into tax collectors among their own people. Small boys were seized for this
Dialogue: 0,0:18:41.42,0:18:50.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,purpose. On the other side of the continent, in northern Nigeria, the colonial
Dialogue: 0,0:18:50.29,0:18:55.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,scene was very different. With no white settlers, life was peaceful. Things
Dialogue: 0,0:18:55.82,0:19:00.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,continued much as before. The British had conquered this huge region far from
Dialogue: 0,0:19:00.63,0:19:06.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the sea for no real reason other than to keep it from the French, so the British
Dialogue: 0,0:19:06.18,0:19:10.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,were content with a supervision which allowed them to take a back seat. Under
Dialogue: 0,0:19:10.20,0:19:16.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the direction of Lord Lugard, this was called indirect rule. This was the
Dialogue: 0,0:19:16.44,0:19:20.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,residence of the British official who governed the northern Nigerian province of
Dialogue: 0,0:19:20.46,0:19:25.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Kano. Indirect rule meant ruling through local kings, in this case the local
Dialogue: 0,0:19:25.85,0:19:30.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,emir, who, after defeat, accepted British over lordship on condition that
Dialogue: 0,0:19:30.99,0:19:36.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,nothing was done to modernize or democratize the conquered system. Indirect rule
Dialogue: 0,0:19:36.35,0:19:42.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was cheap and highly effective.Local kings and princes kept the peace and law
Dialogue: 0,0:19:42.17,0:19:47.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and order, in their own interest as well as in that of the British. Both sides,
Dialogue: 0,0:19:47.11,0:19:55.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at the top, had much to gain. So kings like this one, the Emir of Katsina, were
Dialogue: 0,0:19:55.50,0:20:01.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,able to stay in power and even add to their personal privileges. They were able
Dialogue: 0,0:20:01.53,0:20:05.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to call on their own local retainers to govern the everyday affairs of the
Dialogue: 0,0:20:05.98,0:20:13.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,country.Music In this way, the native governing class, as the doctrine said, was
Dialogue: 0,0:20:13.71,0:20:18.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to remain a real living force, as well as being a curious and interesting
Dialogue: 0,0:20:18.95,0:20:32.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,pageantry.Chanting>> The ceremonies are the same as a thousand years ago. There
Dialogue: 0,0:20:32.08,0:20:35.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,were kings in northern Nigeria when Richard Lionheart set out on crusade.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:35.34,0:20:43.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Today, he and all the emirs of northern Nigeria play their part as subjects of
Dialogue: 0,0:20:43.84,0:20:48.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the king of England, but their subjects still show their loyalty as in the days
Dialogue: 0,0:20:48.03,0:20:58.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when Katsina was warring with her neighbors.Horn Katsina still keeps her way of
Dialogue: 0,0:20:58.53,0:21:01.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,life, still resists new influences from the world
Dialogue: 0,0:21:01.55,0:21:08.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,outside.>> In short, no modernization of any kind, and therefore, big problems
Dialogue: 0,0:21:08.21,0:21:13.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for the future. I talked to Nigerian Professor Obaro Ikime.
Dialogue: 0,0:21:13.20,0:21:20.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> For the larger part of Nigeria, British rule did not mean anything, for many
Dialogue: 0,0:21:20.55,0:21:26.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,years. In other words, although at the centers of administration there was a
Dialogue: 0,0:21:26.04,0:21:30.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,change which could be seen by the people and felt by the people. In the outlying
Dialogue: 0,0:21:30.49,0:21:37.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,areas, life went on as if the British did not exist. If you take a look at one
Dialogue: 0,0:21:37.54,0:21:43.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,particular area, the north, for example, the seat of the emir, and the seats of
Dialogue: 0,0:21:43.14,0:21:48.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the district heads, may have felt the immediate impact of the British presence,
Dialogue: 0,0:21:48.48,0:21:54.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but the villages were ordered and run just as before, with one important
Dialogue: 0,0:21:54.57,0:22:01.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,difference, though, taxation, that the people had to pay tax to a new power. The
Dialogue: 0,0:22:01.77,0:22:09.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,British built up a corps of Africans, who became known as native administrators,
Dialogue: 0,0:22:09.60,0:22:17.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,developed some commitment to the system. The salaries were comfortable. They had
Dialogue: 0,0:22:17.03,0:22:22.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,power, which they used to enrich themselves at the expense of their followers
Dialogue: 0,0:22:22.79,0:22:29.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and their subjects. Consequently, the British were able to succeed largely by
Dialogue: 0,0:22:29.25,0:22:34.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,developing a corps of people who became partners with them.
Dialogue: 0,0:22:34.97,0:22:39.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> British officers, headed by a resident, are there in every emirate to advise
Dialogue: 0,0:22:39.49,0:22:46.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and assist the emir and his ministers in their day-to-day work. And each month,
Dialogue: 0,0:22:46.47,0:22:50.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the resident presides at a full meeting with the emir's council. There may be
Dialogue: 0,0:22:50.84,0:22:54.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,words from Nigeria's governor in Lagos, or from the colonial office in London.
Dialogue: 0,0:22:54.83,0:23:03.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or the council may discuss the repatriation of pilgrims from Mecca. The dignity
Dialogue: 0,0:23:03.34,0:23:08.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the past, the traditions of Katsina are present in the council chamber.
Dialogue: 0,0:23:08.60,0:23:13.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> Here once more, this time behind polite words, was the essence of colonial
Dialogue: 0,0:23:13.92,0:23:26.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,paternalism.Music In the French colonies along the coast, the scene was both the
Dialogue: 0,0:23:26.66,0:23:32.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,same and different. Dakar, capital of Senegal, actually the little suburb of
Dialogue: 0,0:23:32.59,0:23:38.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Rufisque, a charmingly nostalgic place. Senegal was France's oldest colony in
Dialogue: 0,0:23:38.97,0:23:43.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,tropical Africa, and one where the French presence, like that of the British in
Dialogue: 0,0:23:43.15,0:23:48.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,northern Nigeria, could easily be absorbed. Generally, the French ran their
Dialogue: 0,0:23:48.52,0:23:52.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,colonies on much the same system as the British. But there was one important
Dialogue: 0,0:23:52.80,0:23:58.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,difference. The British thought that their Africans could never become anything
Dialogue: 0,0:23:58.39,0:24:02.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but Africans,and certainly not British. The French idea, on the contrary, was
Dialogue: 0,0:24:02.91,0:24:08.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that in the end, at some distant time, all their Africans would become black
Dialogue: 0,0:24:08.61,0:24:13.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Frenchmen. The culture and the language of France were offered as the eventual
Dialogue: 0,0:24:13.48,0:24:20.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,supreme blessings. This idea was called assimilation. Originally, this was a
Dialogue: 0,0:24:20.79,0:24:27.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,generous idea, but colonial rule reduced it to little or nothing. Yet in four
Dialogue: 0,0:24:27.36,0:24:32.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,municipalities of coastal Senegal, assimilation did take effect. This
Dialogue: 0,0:24:32.41,0:24:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,picturesque island of Goree, just off the port of Dakar, was one. Here you could
Dialogue: 0,0:24:38.02,0:24:44.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,go to school, and even become a French citizen. But you belonged to a tiny
Dialogue: 0,0:24:44.82,0:24:52.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,minority. By 1926, only 48,000 Senegalese had become assimilated, out of a total
Dialogue: 0,0:24:52.03,0:25:14.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of one and a half million. The Senegalese historian Professor Cheikh Anta Diop
Dialogue: 0,0:25:14.76,0:25:20.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,explains. One man from Goree Island who did make it, and carved out for himself
Dialogue: 0,0:25:20.93,0:25:26.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a brilliant career, was Blaise Diagne. Of humble origins, Diagne became the
Dialogue: 0,0:25:26.88,0:25:31.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,first black man to be elected to the French national parliament in Paris. He
Dialogue: 0,0:25:31.99,0:25:38.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,campaigned for black rights, and began to win concessions. That was in 1914.
Dialogue: 0,0:25:38.64,0:25:45.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Music During the First World War, an embattled France called for tens of
Dialogue: 0,0:25:45.86,0:25:50.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,thousands of African troops, as Flanders swallowed its victims. Blaise Diagne
Dialogue: 0,0:25:50.83,0:25:56.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,agreed to be France's recruiting sergeant, and his African reputation vanished
Dialogue: 0,0:25:56.03,0:26:26.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the slaughter. France had long relied on African mercenaries, even as far
Dialogue: 0,0:26:39.11,0:26:44.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,back as the Crimean War, but now it was different, in scale and in suffering.
Dialogue: 0,0:26:44.02,0:26:51.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,More than 200,000 African troops, mostly conscripts, were sent to France, and at
Dialogue: 0,0:26:51.21,0:26:58.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,least 170,000 were thrown into the Holocaust of the trenches.
Dialogue: 0,0:26:58.40,0:27:05.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Music Thousands never came home. Others returned with an experience that
Dialogue: 0,0:27:05.18,0:27:35.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,survivors have still not forgotten. Shoulder to shoulder, white men and black
Dialogue: 0,0:27:59.58,0:28:05.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,men, equal in the trenches. Were they now to become equal in the colonies? Only
Dialogue: 0,0:28:05.76,0:28:35.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the monuments suggested that. With the coming of peace in 1918, the victorious
Dialogue: 0,0:29:38.80,0:29:43.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,colonial systems looked more strongly entrenched than ever before, though
Dialogue: 0,0:29:43.65,0:29:48.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,military rule now gave way to civilian government. This led to a far more
Dialogue: 0,0:29:48.92,0:29:53.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,thorough system of tax collection, to pay for the government. The linchpin of
Dialogue: 0,0:29:53.54,0:29:58.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the British system as the District Officer.>> I'm the District Officer in this
Dialogue: 0,0:29:58.80,0:30:02.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,particular area. The native authority treasurer sends his figures to me for
Dialogue: 0,0:30:02.58,0:30:08.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,checking against last year's. When it's decided what the tax is to be this
Dialogue: 0,0:30:08.51,0:30:15.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,year, I go up to tell the chiefs and people what they're to pay, and why. That's
Dialogue: 0,0:30:15.19,0:30:20.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,my wife. I spend so much time doing the rounds that if she didn't come, we
Dialogue: 0,0:30:20.07,0:30:24.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,wouldn't see much of each other. We take our beds and everything else, as the
Dialogue: 0,0:30:24.84,0:30:31.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,rest huts where we spend the nights have no furniture. You know, we're very
Dialogue: 0,0:30:31.73,0:30:36.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ordinary people, but the pagans still find us a bit of a puzzle with our fuss
Dialogue: 0,0:30:36.70,0:30:41.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and bother. That's the local chief. We ask news of
Dialogue: 0,0:30:41.15,0:30:50.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the crops and the children.Music It's like sitting in a shop window. We come
Dialogue: 0,0:30:50.46,0:30:54.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,here every year, and follow the same ritual, but they always behave as though it
Dialogue: 0,0:30:54.56,0:31:00.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was the first time. Peace is all very well, but it is dull, and they love a bit
Dialogue: 0,0:31:00.07,0:31:06.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of variety.>> Many colonial officials were good, practical, hardworking people
Dialogue: 0,0:31:06.32,0:31:11.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,devoted to their ideals. They were sure that the strong paternal arm of colonial
Dialogue: 0,0:31:11.95,0:31:15.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,rule must be a blessing for Africans, and would have to be continued for
Dialogue: 0,0:31:15.69,0:31:20.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,centuries. They firmly believed that if left to themselves, Africans would
Dialogue: 0,0:31:20.58,0:31:25.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,simply go on living as before, and that, they thought, would be a thoroughly bad
Dialogue: 0,0:31:25.39,0:31:34.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,thing. An old film tells the story as the colonial officials saw it.
Dialogue: 0,0:31:34.71,0:31:40.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> Background Music This simple life under the hot African sky was once a life
Dialogue: 0,0:31:40.67,0:31:46.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of fear and uncertainty. British rule has brought peace. The enterprise of
Dialogue: 0,0:31:46.61,0:31:51.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,European officials and settlers, and of Indian traders, has opened up the
Dialogue: 0,0:31:51.11,0:31:55.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,country. But there is still a long battle to be fought with ignorance, poverty,
Dialogue: 0,0:31:55.48,0:32:01.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and disease. In these lands, where there are so many changes to be made, much
Dialogue: 0,0:32:01.07,0:32:05.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,can be achieved by money, and the initiative of the white man.
Dialogue: 0,0:32:05.33,0:32:10.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> In the more favored colonies, those were the hopes of the 1920s, and in some
Dialogue: 0,0:32:10.02,0:32:14.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,respects they were fulfilled. There came the founding of the first modern
Dialogue: 0,0:32:14.19,0:32:20.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hospitals, veterinary services, and other benefits of Western life. But all the
Dialogue: 0,0:32:20.08,0:32:25.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,money to pay for these good things had to come from Africans, so there now began
Dialogue: 0,0:32:25.09,0:32:33.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a drive for the export of crops to yield cash. The cash crop era got into its
Dialogue: 0,0:32:33.54,0:32:39.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,stride. Groundnuts, as here in Senegal, were a crop that brought cash to farmers
Dialogue: 0,0:32:39.94,0:32:57.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and to colonial purchasing companies. But the cash crops' success also brought
Dialogue: 0,0:32:57.74,0:33:27.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,problems. So long as their crops were bought, African growers could be
Dialogue: 0,0:33:58.18,0:34:03.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,reasonably content. But in 1929, there began the huge and long disaster of the
Dialogue: 0,0:34:03.76,0:34:08.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,world Depression, and prices collapsed. Food production for local people,
Dialogue: 0,0:34:08.50,0:34:13.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,already badly hit because of land taken for cash crops, became a subject of
Dialogue: 0,0:34:13.76,0:34:22.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,major crisis. What is true of the French Empire was just as true of all the
Dialogue: 0,0:34:22.41,0:34:29.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,others. Here in the Gold Coast, the big cash crop was cocoa, providing the bulk
Dialogue: 0,0:34:29.41,0:34:34.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the colony's exports. The crop was grown and harvested entirely by African
Dialogue: 0,0:34:34.21,0:34:39.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,farmers, who had to sell it to British and other foreign buying companies. These
Dialogue: 0,0:34:39.71,0:34:47.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,companies banded together so as to pay the farmers an artificially low price.
Dialogue: 0,0:34:47.62,0:34:52.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The farmers of Ghana, then the Gold Coast, nonetheless worked so well that they
Dialogue: 0,0:34:52.32,0:34:57.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,became the world's biggest producers of cocoa, and so of chocolate, which
Dialogue: 0,0:34:57.44,0:35:03.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Africans didn't eat. But the gains were far from equally shared. The Ghanaian
Dialogue: 0,0:35:03.04,0:35:08.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,historian, Professor Adu Boahen.>> There's no doubt at all that the farmers were
Dialogue: 0,0:35:08.48,0:35:14.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being cheated. The prices that were being paid for the cocoa bore no
Dialogue: 0,0:35:14.48,0:35:19.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,relationship to the prices that we had to pay for the imported goods. We had no
Dialogue: 0,0:35:19.08,0:35:24.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,say in the pricing of our own commodities.We had no say in what we paid for what
Dialogue: 0,0:35:24.02,0:35:27.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was imported. This was in fact one of the greatest indictments against the
Dialogue: 0,0:35:27.82,0:35:33.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,colonial economic policies, the fact that so much emphasis was placed on a
Dialogue: 0,0:35:33.49,0:35:39.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,single cash crop. And we had to import rice. We had to import oil, palm oil, and
Dialogue: 0,0:35:39.45,0:35:44.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so on, you know, to feed ourselves, because so much emphasis and so much
Dialogue: 0,0:35:44.15,0:35:47.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,attention was paid to this single cash crop, cocoa.
Dialogue: 0,0:35:47.18,0:35:51.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The colonial governors were just concerned with obtaining raw materials to feed
Dialogue: 0,0:35:51.90,0:35:56.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,their factories abroad.>> The raw materials were produced by the skill and
Dialogue: 0,0:35:56.29,0:36:01.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,enterprise of hard-working African men and women, yet the advertisements in
Dialogue: 0,0:36:01.53,0:36:07.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Europe, deeply racist by this time, presented an insultingly different picture.
Dialogue: 0,0:36:07.03,0:36:12.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,At the same time, African businessmen found that the trading positions they had
Dialogue: 0,0:36:12.19,0:36:17.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,established in earlier times were now swept away.>> There's no doubt at all that
Dialogue: 0,0:36:17.84,0:36:23.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,before the colonial period, Africans were playing a far more important and
Dialogue: 0,0:36:23.82,0:36:27.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,dominant role in the economy than during the colonial period, with many of them
Dialogue: 0,0:36:27.38,0:36:32.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,running their own import/export business. In the 1920s and 1930s, all these
Dialogue: 0,0:36:32.70,0:36:37.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,African merchant princes eventually disappeared from the field, because the dice
Dialogue: 0,0:36:37.04,0:36:45.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,were so much loaded against them under the colonial system. The banks were
Dialogue: 0,0:36:45.04,0:36:48.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,discriminating against them in the granting of loans. The export trade firms and
Dialogue: 0,0:36:49.00,0:36:53.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,particularly the inaudible firms were undercutting them. And they just could not
Dialogue: 0,0:36:53.57,0:36:57.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,stand the challenge, and therefore many of them simply ran out of business. And
Dialogue: 0,0:36:57.11,0:37:01.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the children of these great merchant princes now became the employees of the
Dialogue: 0,0:37:01.59,0:37:07.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,great African capitalist companies like UEC, UTC, SUA and so on.
Dialogue: 0,0:37:07.85,0:37:14.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> Colonial trading companies, British, French, Belgian, Portuguese, monopolized
Dialogue: 0,0:37:14.32,0:37:22.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,wholesale business with the full backing of their colonial governments. What
Dialogue: 0,0:37:22.45,0:37:27.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,King Leopold had called "this magnificent African cake" was beginning to yield
Dialogue: 0,0:37:27.70,0:37:34.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,its riches. Often those were painful days, but they have to be recalled by
Dialogue: 0,0:37:34.31,0:37:42.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,anyone who wishes to understand the problems of Africa now. The turmoil of today
Dialogue: 0,0:37:42.32,0:37:47.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the Congo, or Zaire, has its roots in the infamous Congo Free State of King
Dialogue: 0,0:37:47.54,0:37:52.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Leopold. Here the emphasis was on the growing of rubber, and the methods used to
Dialogue: 0,0:37:52.47,0:38:00.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,extract it were no better than a reign of terror. Local people were forced to
Dialogue: 0,0:38:00.15,0:38:05.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,collect rubber under the most cruel conditions, as these old photographs show.
Dialogue: 0,0:38:05.82,0:38:10.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If the rubber they collected was poor, or small in quantity, men, and sometimes
Dialogue: 0,0:38:10.78,0:38:17.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,women too, could expect to lose a hand or foot in punishment. Terrible things
Dialogue: 0,0:38:17.60,0:38:23.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,were done. An official British fact-finding commission reported, "The daily
Dialogue: 0,0:38:23.30,0:38:28.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,agony of an entire people unrolled itself in all its repulsive, terrifying
Dialogue: 0,0:38:28.44,0:38:37.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,details." Public opinion in Europe grew horrified. Gradually, the agonies were
Dialogue: 0,0:38:37.41,0:38:43.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,reduced. Yet huge damage had been done, moral as well as physical, and was going
Dialogue: 0,0:38:43.40,0:38:56.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to cast a dark and violent shadow over the future of the Congo. Forced labor by
Dialogue: 0,0:38:56.74,0:39:02.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the 1920s was practiced on a wide scale in most of the colonies. All early roads
Dialogue: 0,0:39:02.75,0:39:10.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and railways were built by forced labor. Much was achieved, but the cost in life
Dialogue: 0,0:39:10.46,0:39:18.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and health was sometimes catastrophic. This spectacular railway in French
Dialogue: 0,0:39:18.31,0:39:24.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Equatorial Africa was built by 125,000 Africans to link the coast with
Dialogue: 0,0:39:24.03,0:39:30.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Brazzaville, the inland capital. Beyond doubt, a great feat of engineering, but
Dialogue: 0,0:39:30.43,0:39:35.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,before a single passenger could travel on it, nearly 14,000 Africans were to die
Dialogue: 0,0:39:35.14,0:39:44.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in building it. Travel in comfort came at a price. By the 1920s, the colonial
Dialogue: 0,0:39:44.90,0:39:50.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,railway map was complete. These lines had one central purpose: to ensure the
Dialogue: 0,0:39:50.13,0:39:59.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,export of minerals and other wealth, most of all from Southern Africa. European
Dialogue: 0,0:39:59.22,0:40:05.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,mining activity for gold, copper, zinc, diamonds transformed Southern Africa,
Dialogue: 0,0:40:05.30,0:40:10.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,thanks again to African labor, acquired by the usual procedure of administrative
Dialogue: 0,0:40:10.08,0:40:17.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,force and taxation. Conditions were hard to bear. Some 30,000 Africans died in
Dialogue: 0,0:40:17.10,0:40:25.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Southern Rhodesian mines between 1904 and 1933, mostly of disease. And wages at
Dialogue: 0,0:40:25.05,0:40:32.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the end of that period were lower than they'd been at the start. This labor
Dialogue: 0,0:40:32.34,0:41:02.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,system was called chibaro. Very old men can still remember it. Gold mining
Dialogue: 0,0:41:06.98,0:41:11.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,boomed. In those years of chibaro, the Southern Rhodesian mining industry
Dialogue: 0,0:41:11.89,0:41:17.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,produced gold worth 87 million pounds sterling, at the cost of 20 dead African
Dialogue: 0,0:41:17.75,0:41:28.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,miners each week, on average, for 30 years. Just as in the bigger mines of South
Dialogue: 0,0:41:28.72,0:41:34.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Africa, living conditions for miners were appalling. Safety provisions were
Dialogue: 0,0:41:34.72,0:41:44.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,primitive. Discipline was often brutal, healthcare almost nonexistent. Prison
Dialogue: 0,0:41:44.75,0:42:11.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,labor was used whenever available, and that was often, and child labor too.
Dialogue: 0,0:42:11.43,0:42:16.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,After 1930, the whole labor system in large regions had come to depend on people
Dialogue: 0,0:42:16.29,0:42:22.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,having to abandon their villages and go far away to work in colonial mines or on
Dialogue: 0,0:42:22.11,0:42:28.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,plantations. This was called migrant labor, a huge upheaval which soon began to
Dialogue: 0,0:42:28.72,0:42:34.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,destroy the old stabilities of rural Africa. An official British committee in
Dialogue: 0,0:42:34.84,0:42:39.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,1935 reported that the old order of society was being completely undermined by
Dialogue: 0,0:42:39.70,0:42:50.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,migrant labor. The years ahead were going to confirm it. But it was in the
Dialogue: 0,0:42:50.15,0:42:56.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Portuguese colonies, especially Angola and Mozambique, that forced labor was at
Dialogue: 0,0:42:56.79,0:43:02.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,its worst. Here in Mozambique, and by brutal methods, African farmers were
Dialogue: 0,0:43:02.51,0:43:09.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,forced to grow cotton and to sell it at prices fixed by the colonial government,
Dialogue: 0,0:43:09.06,0:43:14.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,prices kept so low that the farmers used to say of the cotton that they were
Dialogue: 0,0:43:14.72,0:43:23.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,forced to grow, that cotton was the mother of poverty.
Dialogue: 0,0:43:23.35,0:43:29.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Singing The raw cotton was sent to textile factories in Portugal, and returned
Dialogue: 0,0:43:29.15,0:43:36.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the form of shirts for Africans to buy. All the profits were Portuguese. The
Dialogue: 0,0:43:36.46,0:43:40.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,more the farmers learned to hate cotton, the more they were forced to grow it,
Dialogue: 0,0:43:40.93,0:44:10.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on pain of severe punishment.Singing The farmers in this old film had no legal
Dialogue: 0,0:44:34.74,0:44:39.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,means of protest, but they could express their anger by singing anti-colonial
Dialogue: 0,0:44:39.50,0:44:48.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,songs in their own language. There seemed, then, no way out, no hope ahead. And
Dialogue: 0,0:44:48.38,0:44:53.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,before long, the same disaster struck here as elsewhere. Food crops
Dialogue: 0,0:44:53.60,0:45:23.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,disappeared, and once-prosperous areas were hit by famine.
Dialogue: 0,0:45:34.55,0:45:49.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Music In spite of African suffering, settlers arrived in growing numbers. Some
Dialogue: 0,0:45:49.44,0:45:54.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,were political exiles from the Portuguese dictatorship. Many were poor people,
Dialogue: 0,0:45:54.42,0:46:00.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hoping for a better life. Sent out to be farmers, most preferred the easier life
Dialogue: 0,0:46:00.35,0:46:06.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the towns. They opened shops and businesses, and aimed at the success which
Dialogue: 0,0:46:06.12,0:46:12.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,had eluded them at home. This actually suited the official colonial doctrine.
Dialogue: 0,0:46:12.71,0:46:20.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The Portuguese dictator, Marcelo Caetano, laid it down in plain words:"The
Dialogue: 0,0:46:20.93,0:46:48.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,blacks are to be organized and enclosed," he said, "in an economy directed by
Dialogue: 0,0:46:48.13,0:47:11.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,whites."Music Mass resistance was to develop later, but already even the poorest
Dialogue: 0,0:47:11.26,0:47:16.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and least educated Africans could see that colonial rule had much more to take
Dialogue: 0,0:47:16.50,0:47:28.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,than to give. Whatever good may have come from colonial rule, has to be
Dialogue: 0,0:47:28.06,0:47:32.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,measured,unfortunately, against the essential aims of each of the colonial
Dialogue: 0,0:47:32.64,0:47:37.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,systems. These aims were frankly stated: They were to extract wealth. We've
Dialogue: 0,0:47:38.01,0:47:42.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,looked at some of the ways in which wealth was extracted, by the use of forced
Dialogue: 0,0:47:42.78,0:47:47.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or cheap labor, by the seizure of land, by the incessant pressure on growing
Dialogue: 0,0:47:47.80,0:47:53.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,crops for export,rather than crops for local food needs, and always, by the
Dialogue: 0,0:47:53.52,0:47:59.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,deliberate treatment of Africans as inferior beings. Whatever appearances might
Dialogue: 0,0:47:59.61,0:48:04.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,suggest, Africans in fact were no longer prepared to accept their permanently
Dialogue: 0,0:48:04.09,0:48:08.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,inferior status. All over the continent, the first signs of a new political
Dialogue: 0,0:48:08.95,0:48:14.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,dissent had already begun to appear. In the 1920s, for example, was the protest
Dialogue: 0,0:48:14.47,0:48:19.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,action of Harry Thuku in Kenya. At the same time, with Casely Hayford and his
Dialogue: 0,0:48:19.12,0:48:24.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,companions in British West Africa. And perhaps above all, with Herbert
Dialogue: 0,0:48:24.16,0:48:28.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Macaulay, often called the father of Nigerian nationalism. But their demands
Dialogue: 0,0:48:28.97,0:48:35.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,were small.>> Some of these inaudible were completely taken in by the British
Dialogue: 0,0:48:35.12,0:48:39.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,system, which they thought was a good thing, and that we should become part of
Dialogue: 0,0:48:39.77,0:48:45.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that good thing. The real pressure was for the British to become a bit more
Dialogue: 0,0:48:45.29,0:48:50.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,liberal.>> During the 1930s, and notably with the rise to prominence of the
Dialogue: 0,0:48:50.71,0:48:56.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,firey but very effective Nigerian nationalist, Nnamdi Azikiwe, much stronger and
Dialogue: 0,0:48:56.45,0:49:02.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,more far-reaching demands began to be made. Men like Azikiwe used the press
Dialogue: 0,0:49:02.32,0:49:07.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where this was possible, as it was in British West Africa. They now sought a
Dialogue: 0,0:49:07.19,0:49:11.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,mass audience. Politics moved out of polite drawing rooms into the clamor of the
Dialogue: 0,0:49:11.80,0:49:17.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,streets.>> So the resistance movement took many forms and it was not confined
Dialogue: 0,0:49:17.67,0:49:22.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,only to the elite, as some people tend to think. In fact it was also evident in
Dialogue: 0,0:49:22.33,0:49:28.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the rural area, and even among the ordinary farmers and the ordinary workers.
Dialogue: 0,0:49:28.10,0:49:32.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> One form of mass resistance took shape in a big cocoa hold-up, in the Gold
Dialogue: 0,0:49:32.52,0:49:38.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Coast, when farmers demanded fairer prices. Once again, the press could be used
Dialogue: 0,0:49:38.94,0:49:44.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to good effect.>> But unfortunately, in the 1930s there was never any
Dialogue: 0,0:49:44.21,0:49:50.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,coordination between the protests of the rural folk and the farmers, and the
Dialogue: 0,0:49:50.38,0:49:56.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,protests being organized by the elite. And this is why the resistance movement
Dialogue: 0,0:49:56.36,0:50:02.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was not very successful.>> But now, in 1935, came a new and savage challenge to
Dialogue: 0,0:50:03.01,0:50:08.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,African hopes of progress: another colonial invasion, Fascist Italy's brutal
Dialogue: 0,0:50:08.19,0:50:15.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,assault on Ethiopia,then called Abyssinia.>> No power on earth now seems able to
Dialogue: 0,0:50:15.36,0:50:20.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hold up Italy's sweeping advance across Abyssinia's rain-swept mountains. Now
Dialogue: 0,0:50:20.39,0:50:24.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Dessie has been captured. From there a direct road leads to Addis Ababa, so
Dialogue: 0,0:50:24.57,0:50:27.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,perhaps it's only a question of time as to when the victorious Italian troops
Dialogue: 0,0:50:27.94,0:50:34.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,will march into the capital, and the emperor will have to sue for peace.
Dialogue: 0,0:50:34.34,0:50:38.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> With the colonial powers sounding quite pleased about this invasion, Italy's
Dialogue: 0,0:50:38.45,0:50:42.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,armies pushed on, against afar weaker adversary, explosions and bombed and
Dialogue: 0,0:50:42.57,0:50:50.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,shelled their way to success. But Africans were outraged.
Dialogue: 0,0:50:50.26,0:50:55.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> For the first time, the blacks all over the world, not even Africa alone, but
Dialogue: 0,0:50:56.01,0:51:03.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the blacks all over the world felt that they have been attacked. You know,
Dialogue: 0,0:51:03.56,0:51:09.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Ethiopia and Liberia, were the only two countries in Africa that were able to
Dialogue: 0,0:51:09.22,0:51:13.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,maintain their sovereign existence during the period of the scramble and the
Dialogue: 0,0:51:13.41,0:51:17.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,occupation of the continent by the imperial powers. And Ethiopia therefore
Dialogue: 0,0:51:17.31,0:51:21.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,became the symbol of hope, not only for Africa but for all the black people all
Dialogue: 0,0:51:21.54,0:51:28.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,over. Ethiopia was looked upon as the symbol of the revival and the regaining of
Dialogue: 0,0:51:28.52,0:51:33.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the independence and sovereignty of Africa. And therefore when this invasion
Dialogue: 0,0:51:33.19,0:51:42.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,took place, it meant the complete snuffing out of this last beam of hope.
Dialogue: 0,0:51:42.35,0:51:47.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,>> Italy's troops entered Addis Ababa, capital of a now subjected Ethiopia, and
Dialogue: 0,0:51:47.85,0:51:54.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,still there came no more than verbal protest from outside powers. Yet Ethiopia's
Dialogue: 0,0:51:54.63,0:51:59.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,defeat, painfully confirmed when her people laid down their arms, sent out a
Dialogue: 0,0:51:59.50,0:52:06.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,call for action to Africans everywhere.>> Indeed for some of us, 1935 now is
Dialogue: 0,0:52:06.60,0:52:12.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being considered as the more appropriate date for the beginning of the modern
Dialogue: 0,0:52:13.01,0:52:20.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,nationalist period of African history,rather than 1939, or even 1945. Because we
Dialogue: 0,0:52:20.73,0:52:25.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,believe that, but for the breakout of the, outbreak of the Second World War, in
Dialogue: 0,0:52:25.96,0:52:32.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,1939, probably the struggle for independence would have begun from 1935, as a
Dialogue: 0,0:52:32.52,0:52:39.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,result of the indignation, as a result of the anger, as a result of the
Dialogue: 0,0:52:39.22,0:52:44.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,emotions, as a result of the strong feelings of anti-imperialism that were
Dialogue: 0,0:52:44.77,0:52:51.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,aroused by the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.>> Those feelings were aroused above
Dialogue: 0,0:52:51.05,0:52:56.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,all among the few who could win a modern education at schools like this one:
Dialogue: 0,0:52:56.85,0:53:01.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Achimota in the Gold Coast, where Kwame Nkrumah, future leader of the country's
Dialogue: 0,0:53:01.30,0:53:06.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,independence movement had been a student. Young people began to read whatever
Dialogue: 0,0:53:06.66,0:53:11.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,anti-colonial newspapers they could find. Even in the midst of discouraging
Dialogue: 0,0:53:11.25,0:53:19.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,years, hope flourished afresh. A new generation of educated Africans, some of
Dialogue: 0,0:53:19.50,0:53:24.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,them trained here at Achimota, was reaching maturity. And then came the
Dialogue: 0,0:53:24.97,0:53:29.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,tremendous upheavals of the Second World War, surging with revolutionary force
Dialogue: 0,0:53:29.53,0:53:35.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,through the entire colonial world. By 1945, as we shall see in our next
Dialogue: 0,0:53:35.72,0:54:05.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,program, the scene was set for great dramas in a struggle for independence.
Dialogue: 0,0:54:35.06,0:54:35.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Music