WEBVTT 00:00:21.829 --> 00:00:51.829 Music Music and Singing Music>> The West Coast of Africa looking today much as 00:01:31.849 --> 00:01:36.929 it did 100 years ago. At that time, the old evils of the slave trade had become 00:01:36.949 --> 00:01:41.980 a distant though disgraceful memory. But there now opened a new chapter of 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:47.090 confrontation along these tropical shores. In past years, Europeans had come 00:01:47.109 --> 00:01:54.679 here for profitable business. Now they wanted more, much more. Old trading 00:01:54.699 --> 00:02:00.090 posts, like this one, had long been the scene of a partnership between maritime 00:02:00.109 --> 00:02:06.230 traders from Europe and local Africans.By the 1880s, that old partnership was 00:02:06.250 --> 00:02:12.419 being swept away in a dramatic change,the outcome of a new European drive for 00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:18.759 overseas empire. Industrialized countries led by France and Britain had begun to 00:02:18.780 --> 00:02:24.249 invade the black continent,each hoping for new sources of raw materials for its 00:02:24.269 --> 00:02:30.279 factories, new markets for its manufacturers, and new positions of advantage 00:02:30.299 --> 00:02:37.079 against its rivals. This was called the scramble for Africa. By 1914, only two 00:02:37.099 --> 00:02:42.799 countries remained outside European possession, Liberia in the west and Ethiopia 00:02:42.819 --> 00:02:48.409 in the east. Britain had seized the lion's share of control: Egypt and the Sudan 00:02:48.429 --> 00:02:53.239 in the north, the immense wealth of South Africa, valuable colonies like 00:02:53.259 --> 00:02:59.319 Rhodesia and Kenya, and richly populated territories such as Nigeria and the 00:02:59.340 --> 00:03:07.199 Gold Coast. France had invaded Algeria in the 1830s. Now after new wars of 00:03:07.219 --> 00:03:12.409 conquest, she added more colonies to her empire south of the Sahara, including 00:03:12.429 --> 00:03:20.019 the island of Madagascar.Little Portugal carved out of two vast colonies, Angola 00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:25.069 and Mozambique, while the imperial Germany took the Cameroons and southwest 00:03:25.090 --> 00:03:32.859 Africa, and on the East Coast Tanganyika. The vast Congo basin fell to King 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:40.119 Leopold of the Belgians.Italy and Spain completed the enclosure. The fate of the 00:03:40.139 --> 00:03:48.149 continent was utterly changed. Between the colonizing powers themselves, the 00:03:48.169 --> 00:03:54.669 carve-up was peaceful.But their rivalry was intense. In 1884, a congress of the 00:03:54.689 --> 00:04:00.079 competing governments met in Berlin to settle their disputes. Germany's Iron 00:04:00.099 --> 00:04:06.859 Chancellor of Bismarck was there. And active behind the scenes was the ambitious 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:12.019 Belgian king. He spoke for them all when he said, "I am determined to get my 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:18.810 share of this magnificent African cake. Any power that could occupy African soil 00:04:18.829 --> 00:04:33.550 could effectively claim it."Music Now the task was to stake out frontiers in 00:04:33.569 --> 00:04:38.590 utterly uncharted land. Said the French prime minister, "We have embarked on a 00:04:38.610 --> 00:04:43.170 gigantic steeplechase into the unknown." The British Prime Minister Lord 00:04:43.189 --> 00:04:48.810 Salisbury was to say of this period,"We've been engaged in drawing lines on maps 00:04:48.829 --> 00:04:53.209 where no man's foot has ever trod.We've been giving away mountains and rivers 00:04:53.229 --> 00:04:57.259 and lakes to each other, only hindered by the small impediment that we never 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:07.780 knew exactly where we were."Music The great game was to get hold of places and 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:12.889 positions of advantage over rivals,no matter what irrational frontiers might 00:05:12.909 --> 00:05:22.670 result. One of the most absurd cases was the magnificent Gambia River. Britain 00:05:22.689 --> 00:05:27.430 had long held Bathurst, Banjul today,and was determined to keep this river route 00:05:27.449 --> 00:05:33.069 to the interior. But France,invading from the West Coast, enclosed all the 00:05:33.089 --> 00:05:38.459 territories surrounding the Gambia River in her new colony of Senegal. So the 00:05:38.479 --> 00:05:43.079 French was naturally eager to obtain the Gambia River. They offered Britain in 00:05:43.099 --> 00:05:48.720 exchange the much larger and richer Ivory Coast. But the British Parliament 00:05:48.740 --> 00:05:55.050 insisted on keeping the Gambia,thus dividing the peoples of the region. And the 00:05:55.069 --> 00:06:02.579 result and is a country that is 300 miles long but never more than 30 miles 00:06:02.599 --> 00:06:12.860 wide.Conversations Indistinct What the African inhabitants might think of this 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:18.339 colonial carve-up was never asked. The European idea in the words of one British 00:06:18.359 --> 00:06:23.199 governor was to seize African territory and then as much as possible rule the 00:06:23.219 --> 00:06:29.800 country as if there were no inhabitants.Conversations Indistinct 00:06:29.819 --> 00:06:34.290 In fact, European contempt for Africans now reached new depths. And no wonder; 00:06:34.310 --> 00:06:40.389 for how otherwise and by asserting that Africans were helpless children, lazy 00:06:40.409 --> 00:06:44.470 savages could Christian Europe justify taking their countries away from them? 00:06:44.490 --> 00:06:57.699 Singing The helpless children meanwhile sang their own version of a famous hymn, 00:06:57.719 --> 00:07:02.220 "Onward, Christian soldiers. On to heathen lands. Prayer book in your pockets. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:07.129 Rifles in your hands. Take the happy tidings where trade can be done; spread the 00:07:07.149 --> 00:07:16.250 peaceful gospel with a Gatling gun.Music The European invasions were widely 00:07:16.269 --> 00:07:21.899 resisted. Conquest was never easy. And sometimes as these old drawings and 00:07:21.919 --> 00:07:27.290 photographs testify, conquests led to a ruthless killing that later generations 00:07:27.310 --> 00:07:48.290 would prefer to forget.Drums Resistance took many shapes. In French West 00:07:48.310 --> 00:07:53.889 Africa, a focal point was found in Muslim loyalties. Many heroes, still 00:07:53.909 --> 00:08:01.600 unforgotten, came on that scene. Some, like the Senegalese religious leader 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:11.719 Amadou Bamba, offered the way of peace but was still sent into exile. Others, 00:08:11.739 --> 00:08:14.279 like the fierce warrior leader Samori, fought off 00:08:14.299 --> 00:08:21.980 French attack after attack and was crushed and exiled only after years of war. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:27.529 Death took many, strong or weak. With the skulls of earlier wars displayed in 00:08:27.549 --> 00:08:32.039 their capital, Kumasi, the powerful Ashanti nation ruled over most of modern 00:08:32.058 --> 00:08:38.450 Ghana. Led by their kings who had the title of Asantehene, they had long 00:08:38.470 --> 00:08:43.549 defended their country against Britain. But now they desperately wanted a 00:08:43.568 --> 00:08:49.529 peaceful settlement. In 1895, fearing a disastrous war with Britain, King 00:08:49.549 --> 00:08:54.909 Prempeh made a strong bid for peace from his palace here at Kumasi. He offered 00:08:54.929 --> 00:08:59.049 the British the right to establish in Ashanti a chartered company with all the 00:08:59.069 --> 00:09:04.769 concessions, the privilege that such a company could possibly desire. But it 00:09:04.789 --> 00:09:10.519 wasn't enough, for the British now wanted territorial possession as well as 00:09:10.539 --> 00:09:18.279 privilege.Gunfire The Ashanti nation had already fought long, hard battles 00:09:18.299 --> 00:09:24.460 against the British.But this time, in 1896, they decided to surrender. 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:34.090 Gunfire In a ceremony of deliberate humiliation, the king was made to kiss the 00:09:34.110 --> 00:09:39.149 British commander's boot, and then sent into exile. But it wasn't the end of the 00:09:39.169 --> 00:09:43.529 story.The British now blundered. A new British governor, Sir Frederick Hodgson, 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:48.210 decided that he had to get possession of the sacred golden stool, symbol of the 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:53.179 Ashanti Nation's soul. Arriving at the British fort here in Kumasi, he ordered 00:09:53.199 --> 00:09:58.370 the assembled chiefs to hand the stool over. Worse still, he demanded the right 00:09:58.389 --> 00:10:03.903 to sit on it, something that no person had ever been allowed to do, not even the 00:10:03.923 --> 00:10:14.240 king himself.Gunfire To Hodgson's final insult, the Ashanti replied with war. 00:10:14.259 --> 00:10:20.250 This little fort at Kumasi is what the British had built, just in case, and now 00:10:20.269 --> 00:10:25.730 they sorely needed it. The few dozen British inmates of the fort were besieged 00:10:25.750 --> 00:10:36.500 for months, and had to eat rats to stay alive. Hodgson's act of folly had 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:41.539 exacted a bitter price.Efforts to send in relief from the coast were repeatedly 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:47.090 frustrated by Ashanti resistance, until finally, the governor and his wife got 00:10:47.110 --> 00:10:52.620 away to the coast, and the absurd but tragic affair could be closed. This ended 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:57.819 war between Britain and Ashanti, and a year later, in 1901, the British quietly 00:10:57.839 --> 00:11:03.909 annexed the country,which became part of the colony of the Gold Coast. All over 00:11:03.929 --> 00:11:09.330 Africa, the new military technology of automatic guns gave easy victories to the 00:11:09.350 --> 00:11:22.669 invaders.Singing Background Singing Countless resisters died, many thousands at 00:11:22.689 --> 00:11:30.039 the single battle of Omdurman, in Britain's conquest of the Sudan. Meanwhile, in 00:11:30.059 --> 00:11:35.909 another part of the Sudan, the French were also scoring victories. For the most 00:11:35.929 --> 00:11:41.460 part, public opinion rejoiced, for were these not victories over an inferior 00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:55.860 species, a kind of joke humanity? There were some critics, but not many, and 00:11:55.879 --> 00:11:58.759 their voice was ignored or silenced. What really mattered was to do down one's 00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:04.580 European rivals:if you were British, to get the better of the French in West 00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:11.299 Africa, or of the Germans in East Africa, while orphans like little Uganda were 00:12:11.319 --> 00:12:19.919 left on the protective doorstep of Father John Bull. Even before 1900, there 00:12:19.939 --> 00:12:25.340 came a new source of conflict: settlers from Europe, French in the far north, 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:30.340 Dutch, and then British in the far south, and some Germans. Other settlers were 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:35.559 attracted to the good farming land of the east, to Tanganyika, northern and 00:12:35.579 --> 00:12:42.120 southern Rhodesia, and the British territories of Uganda and Kenya. Once again, 00:12:42.139 --> 00:12:48.569 nobody asked permission. An early French governor had laid down the Golden Rule: 00:12:48.589 --> 00:12:52.799 "Wherever good water and fertile land are found," he said, "settlers must be 00:12:52.819 --> 00:12:58.559 installed without questioning whose land it may be." The settlers, not 00:12:58.579 --> 00:13:06.139 surprisingly, agreed. The next step in East Africa was to build a railway from 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:14.289 the coast to the interior. The line was completed in 1901, and millions of acres 00:13:14.309 --> 00:13:19.139 of good farming land in Kenya were opened to white ownership and settlement for 00:13:19.159 --> 00:13:24.779 the buying price of next to nothing. These white strangers, oddly enough, were 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:30.449 at first welcomed by the African inhabitants. But the welcome didn't last for 00:13:30.469 --> 00:13:36.129 long, for they soon discovered that colonial government wanted them to give 00:13:36.149 --> 00:13:43.259 things, above all their land, and their labor. These colonial demands provoked a 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:48.019 repeated resistance. And against that resistance, the colonial government, with 00:13:48.039 --> 00:13:52.819 white settlers arriving in ever larger numbers from Britain, waged a war with 00:13:52.839 --> 00:14:03.850 little mercy, and of course with rifles and machine guns against spears and 00:14:03.870 --> 00:14:19.980 arrows.Drums This beating down of a sometimes violent and desperate African 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:25.319 protest was called pacification, or less politely, hammering. A British officer 00:14:25.339 --> 00:14:28.360 then fighting in Kenya kept a sadly instructive diary. 00:14:28.379 --> 00:14:35.259 >> "Marched into Fort Hall, and the expedition comes to an end. To my mind, the 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:39.029 people of the Embu have not been sufficiently hammered, and I should like to go 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:43.360 back at once and have another go at them. During the first phase of our 00:14:43.379 --> 00:14:48.809 expedition against the Iriani, we killed 797 niggers, and during the second 00:14:48.829 --> 00:14:56.590 phase, against the Embu, we killed about 250.">> There was, in fact, much more 00:14:56.610 --> 00:15:01.470 of the same thing. In a sixth campaign against the Kenya Nandi, for example, 00:15:01.490 --> 00:15:07.199 British troops reported killing 1117 people,besides seizing all their 00:15:07.219 --> 00:15:16.819 livestock. In 1906, a junior British minister in London cabled this protest: " 00:15:16.839 --> 00:15:21.720 Surely it cannot be necessary to go on killing these defenseless people on such 00:15:21.740 --> 00:15:27.669 an enormous scale." The minister's name was Winston Churchill, but on that 00:15:27.689 --> 00:15:57.689 occasion, his intervention had no effect.Music By 1915, about four million acres 00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:47.309 of African farming land in central Kenya had been given to about one thousand 00:16:47.329 --> 00:16:53.720 British settlers. By the 1920s, about half of the able-bodied men of Kenya's two 00:16:53.740 --> 00:16:58.399 largest founding peoples, the Kikuyu and the Luhya, were working as laborers for 00:16:58.419 --> 00:17:05.309 British newcomers. How was that done? The answer, once again, was something new 00:17:05.329 --> 00:17:11.279 in Kenya: taxation. To cultivate these splendid acres, it was necessary to make 00:17:11.299 --> 00:17:17.670 Africans pay taxes in cash. Having no money economy of their own, Africans could 00:17:17.690 --> 00:17:25.740 pay tax in cash only if they went to work for a European wage. An old Masai 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:55.759 recalls those early days. The Masai proved particularly good at dodging the 00:18:03.659 --> 00:18:08.589 payment of the new taxes, so the colonial government thought it should send some 00:18:08.609 --> 00:18:13.569 of these apparently idle warriors to school, so as to turn them, if possible, 00:18:13.589 --> 00:18:41.399 into tax collectors among their own people. Small boys were seized for this 00:18:41.419 --> 00:18:50.269 purpose. On the other side of the continent, in northern Nigeria, the colonial 00:18:50.289 --> 00:18:55.799 scene was very different. With no white settlers, life was peaceful. Things 00:18:55.819 --> 00:19:00.609 continued much as before. The British had conquered this huge region far from 00:19:00.629 --> 00:19:06.159 the sea for no real reason other than to keep it from the French, so the British 00:19:06.179 --> 00:19:10.180 were content with a supervision which allowed them to take a back seat. Under 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:16.420 the direction of Lord Lugard, this was called indirect rule. This was the 00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:20.440 residence of the British official who governed the northern Nigerian province of 00:19:20.460 --> 00:19:25.829 Kano. Indirect rule meant ruling through local kings, in this case the local 00:19:25.849 --> 00:19:30.970 emir, who, after defeat, accepted British over lordship on condition that 00:19:30.990 --> 00:19:36.329 nothing was done to modernize or democratize the conquered system. Indirect rule 00:19:36.349 --> 00:19:42.149 was cheap and highly effective.Local kings and princes kept the peace and law 00:19:42.169 --> 00:19:47.089 and order, in their own interest as well as in that of the British. Both sides, 00:19:47.109 --> 00:19:55.480 at the top, had much to gain. So kings like this one, the Emir of Katsina, were 00:19:55.500 --> 00:20:01.509 able to stay in power and even add to their personal privileges. They were able 00:20:01.529 --> 00:20:05.960 to call on their own local retainers to govern the everyday affairs of the 00:20:05.980 --> 00:20:13.690 country.Music In this way, the native governing class, as the doctrine said, was 00:20:13.710 --> 00:20:18.930 to remain a real living force, as well as being a curious and interesting 00:20:18.950 --> 00:20:32.059 pageantry.Chanting>> The ceremonies are the same as a thousand years ago. There 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:35.319 were kings in northern Nigeria when Richard Lionheart set out on crusade. 00:20:35.339 --> 00:20:43.819 Today, he and all the emirs of northern Nigeria play their part as subjects of 00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:48.009 the king of England, but their subjects still show their loyalty as in the days 00:20:48.029 --> 00:20:58.509 when Katsina was warring with her neighbors.Horn Katsina still keeps her way of 00:20:58.529 --> 00:21:01.529 life, still resists new influences from the world 00:21:01.549 --> 00:21:08.190 outside.>> In short, no modernization of any kind, and therefore, big problems 00:21:08.210 --> 00:21:13.180 for the future. I talked to Nigerian Professor Obaro Ikime. 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:20.529 >> For the larger part of Nigeria, British rule did not mean anything, for many 00:21:20.549 --> 00:21:26.019 years. In other words, although at the centers of administration there was a 00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:30.470 change which could be seen by the people and felt by the people. In the outlying 00:21:30.490 --> 00:21:37.518 areas, life went on as if the British did not exist. If you take a look at one 00:21:37.538 --> 00:21:43.119 particular area, the north, for example, the seat of the emir, and the seats of 00:21:43.139 --> 00:21:48.460 the district heads, may have felt the immediate impact of the British presence, 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:54.549 but the villages were ordered and run just as before, with one important 00:21:54.569 --> 00:22:01.750 difference, though, taxation, that the people had to pay tax to a new power. The 00:22:01.769 --> 00:22:09.579 British built up a corps of Africans, who became known as native administrators, 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:17.009 developed some commitment to the system. The salaries were comfortable. They had 00:22:17.029 --> 00:22:22.769 power, which they used to enrich themselves at the expense of their followers 00:22:22.789 --> 00:22:29.230 and their subjects. Consequently, the British were able to succeed largely by 00:22:29.250 --> 00:22:34.950 developing a corps of people who became partners with them. 00:22:34.970 --> 00:22:39.470 >> British officers, headed by a resident, are there in every emirate to advise 00:22:39.490 --> 00:22:46.450 and assist the emir and his ministers in their day-to-day work. And each month, 00:22:46.470 --> 00:22:50.815 the resident presides at a full meeting with the emir's council. There may be 00:22:50.835 --> 00:22:54.809 words from Nigeria's governor in Lagos, or from the colonial office in London. 00:22:54.829 --> 00:23:03.319 Or the council may discuss the repatriation of pilgrims from Mecca. The dignity 00:23:03.339 --> 00:23:08.579 of the past, the traditions of Katsina are present in the council chamber. 00:23:08.599 --> 00:23:13.899 >> Here once more, this time behind polite words, was the essence of colonial 00:23:13.919 --> 00:23:26.639 paternalism.Music In the French colonies along the coast, the scene was both the 00:23:26.659 --> 00:23:32.569 same and different. Dakar, capital of Senegal, actually the little suburb of 00:23:32.589 --> 00:23:38.950 Rufisque, a charmingly nostalgic place. Senegal was France's oldest colony in 00:23:38.970 --> 00:23:43.129 tropical Africa, and one where the French presence, like that of the British in 00:23:43.149 --> 00:23:48.500 northern Nigeria, could easily be absorbed. Generally, the French ran their 00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:52.779 colonies on much the same system as the British. But there was one important 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:58.369 difference. The British thought that their Africans could never become anything 00:23:58.389 --> 00:24:02.889 but Africans,and certainly not British. The French idea, on the contrary, was 00:24:02.909 --> 00:24:08.589 that in the end, at some distant time, all their Africans would become black 00:24:08.609 --> 00:24:13.460 Frenchmen. The culture and the language of France were offered as the eventual 00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:20.769 supreme blessings. This idea was called assimilation. Originally, this was a 00:24:20.789 --> 00:24:27.339 generous idea, but colonial rule reduced it to little or nothing. Yet in four 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:32.389 municipalities of coastal Senegal, assimilation did take effect. This 00:24:32.409 --> 00:24:38.000 picturesque island of Goree, just off the port of Dakar, was one. Here you could 00:24:38.019 --> 00:24:44.799 go to school, and even become a French citizen. But you belonged to a tiny 00:24:44.819 --> 00:24:52.009 minority. By 1926, only 48,000 Senegalese had become assimilated, out of a total 00:24:52.029 --> 00:25:14.740 of one and a half million. The Senegalese historian Professor Cheikh Anta Diop 00:25:14.759 --> 00:25:20.909 explains. One man from Goree Island who did make it, and carved out for himself 00:25:20.929 --> 00:25:26.859 a brilliant career, was Blaise Diagne. Of humble origins, Diagne became the 00:25:26.879 --> 00:25:31.970 first black man to be elected to the French national parliament in Paris. He 00:25:31.990 --> 00:25:38.619 campaigned for black rights, and began to win concessions. That was in 1914. 00:25:38.639 --> 00:25:45.839 Music During the First World War, an embattled France called for tens of 00:25:45.859 --> 00:25:50.809 thousands of African troops, as Flanders swallowed its victims. Blaise Diagne 00:25:50.829 --> 00:25:56.009 agreed to be France's recruiting sergeant, and his African reputation vanished 00:25:56.029 --> 00:26:26.029 in the slaughter. France had long relied on African mercenaries, even as far 00:26:39.109 --> 00:26:44.000 back as the Crimean War, but now it was different, in scale and in suffering. 00:26:44.019 --> 00:26:51.190 More than 200,000 African troops, mostly conscripts, were sent to France, and at 00:26:51.210 --> 00:26:58.379 least 170,000 were thrown into the Holocaust of the trenches. 00:26:58.399 --> 00:27:05.159 Music Thousands never came home. Others returned with an experience that 00:27:05.179 --> 00:27:35.179 survivors have still not forgotten. Shoulder to shoulder, white men and black 00:27:59.579 --> 00:28:05.740 men, equal in the trenches. Were they now to become equal in the colonies? Only 00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:35.759 the monuments suggested that. With the coming of peace in 1918, the victorious 00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:43.629 colonial systems looked more strongly entrenched than ever before, though 00:29:43.649 --> 00:29:48.899 military rule now gave way to civilian government. This led to a far more 00:29:48.919 --> 00:29:53.519 thorough system of tax collection, to pay for the government. The linchpin of 00:29:53.539 --> 00:29:58.783 the British system as the District Officer.>> I'm the District Officer in this 00:29:58.803 --> 00:30:02.563 particular area. The native authority treasurer sends his figures to me for 00:30:02.583 --> 00:30:08.490 checking against last year's. When it's decided what the tax is to be this 00:30:08.509 --> 00:30:15.169 year, I go up to tell the chiefs and people what they're to pay, and why. That's 00:30:15.189 --> 00:30:20.052 my wife. I spend so much time doing the rounds that if she didn't come, we 00:30:20.072 --> 00:30:24.819 wouldn't see much of each other. We take our beds and everything else, as the 00:30:24.839 --> 00:30:31.710 rest huts where we spend the nights have no furniture. You know, we're very 00:30:31.730 --> 00:30:36.678 ordinary people, but the pagans still find us a bit of a puzzle with our fuss 00:30:36.698 --> 00:30:41.128 and bother. That's the local chief. We ask news of 00:30:41.148 --> 00:30:50.435 the crops and the children.Music It's like sitting in a shop window. We come 00:30:50.455 --> 00:30:54.538 here every year, and follow the same ritual, but they always behave as though it 00:30:54.557 --> 00:31:00.049 was the first time. Peace is all very well, but it is dull, and they love a bit 00:31:00.069 --> 00:31:06.299 of variety.>> Many colonial officials were good, practical, hardworking people 00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:11.929 devoted to their ideals. They were sure that the strong paternal arm of colonial 00:31:11.949 --> 00:31:15.669 rule must be a blessing for Africans, and would have to be continued for 00:31:15.689 --> 00:31:20.559 centuries. They firmly believed that if left to themselves, Africans would 00:31:20.579 --> 00:31:25.369 simply go on living as before, and that, they thought, would be a thoroughly bad 00:31:25.389 --> 00:31:34.689 thing. An old film tells the story as the colonial officials saw it. 00:31:34.709 --> 00:31:40.650 >> Background Music This simple life under the hot African sky was once a life 00:31:40.670 --> 00:31:46.591 of fear and uncertainty. British rule has brought peace. The enterprise of 00:31:46.611 --> 00:31:51.089 European officials and settlers, and of Indian traders, has opened up the 00:31:51.109 --> 00:31:55.460 country. But there is still a long battle to be fought with ignorance, poverty, 00:31:55.480 --> 00:32:01.049 and disease. In these lands, where there are so many changes to be made, much 00:32:01.069 --> 00:32:05.309 can be achieved by money, and the initiative of the white man. 00:32:05.329 --> 00:32:10.000 >> In the more favored colonies, those were the hopes of the 1920s, and in some 00:32:10.019 --> 00:32:14.169 respects they were fulfilled. There came the founding of the first modern 00:32:14.189 --> 00:32:20.059 hospitals, veterinary services, and other benefits of Western life. But all the 00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:25.069 money to pay for these good things had to come from Africans, so there now began 00:32:25.089 --> 00:32:33.519 a drive for the export of crops to yield cash. The cash crop era got into its 00:32:33.539 --> 00:32:39.919 stride. Groundnuts, as here in Senegal, were a crop that brought cash to farmers 00:32:39.939 --> 00:32:57.717 and to colonial purchasing companies. But the cash crops' success also brought 00:32:57.737 --> 00:33:27.737 problems. So long as their crops were bought, African growers could be 00:33:58.179 --> 00:34:03.740 reasonably content. But in 1929, there began the huge and long disaster of the 00:34:03.759 --> 00:34:08.480 world Depression, and prices collapsed. Food production for local people, 00:34:08.500 --> 00:34:13.739 already badly hit because of land taken for cash crops, became a subject of 00:34:13.759 --> 00:34:22.389 major crisis. What is true of the French Empire was just as true of all the 00:34:22.409 --> 00:34:29.389 others. Here in the Gold Coast, the big cash crop was cocoa, providing the bulk 00:34:29.409 --> 00:34:34.190 of the colony's exports. The crop was grown and harvested entirely by African 00:34:34.210 --> 00:34:39.690 farmers, who had to sell it to British and other foreign buying companies. These 00:34:39.710 --> 00:34:47.599 companies banded together so as to pay the farmers an artificially low price. 00:34:47.619 --> 00:34:52.299 The farmers of Ghana, then the Gold Coast, nonetheless worked so well that they 00:34:52.319 --> 00:34:57.420 became the world's biggest producers of cocoa, and so of chocolate, which 00:34:57.440 --> 00:35:03.019 Africans didn't eat. But the gains were far from equally shared. The Ghanaian 00:35:03.039 --> 00:35:08.460 historian, Professor Adu Boahen.>> There's no doubt at all that the farmers were 00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:14.460 being cheated. The prices that were being paid for the cocoa bore no 00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:19.059 relationship to the prices that we had to pay for the imported goods. We had no 00:35:19.079 --> 00:35:24.000 say in the pricing of our own commodities.We had no say in what we paid for what 00:35:24.019 --> 00:35:27.799 was imported. This was in fact one of the greatest indictments against the 00:35:27.819 --> 00:35:33.469 colonial economic policies, the fact that so much emphasis was placed on a 00:35:33.489 --> 00:35:39.429 single cash crop. And we had to import rice. We had to import oil, palm oil, and 00:35:39.449 --> 00:35:44.130 so on, you know, to feed ourselves, because so much emphasis and so much 00:35:44.150 --> 00:35:47.159 attention was paid to this single cash crop, cocoa. 00:35:47.179 --> 00:35:51.880 The colonial governors were just concerned with obtaining raw materials to feed 00:35:51.900 --> 00:35:56.269 their factories abroad.>> The raw materials were produced by the skill and 00:35:56.289 --> 00:36:01.509 enterprise of hard-working African men and women, yet the advertisements in 00:36:01.529 --> 00:36:07.009 Europe, deeply racist by this time, presented an insultingly different picture. 00:36:07.029 --> 00:36:12.170 At the same time, African businessmen found that the trading positions they had 00:36:12.190 --> 00:36:17.819 established in earlier times were now swept away.>> There's no doubt at all that 00:36:17.839 --> 00:36:23.799 before the colonial period, Africans were playing a far more important and 00:36:23.819 --> 00:36:27.360 dominant role in the economy than during the colonial period, with many of them 00:36:27.380 --> 00:36:32.679 running their own import/export business. In the 1920s and 1930s, all these 00:36:32.699 --> 00:36:37.019 African merchant princes eventually disappeared from the field, because the dice 00:36:37.039 --> 00:36:45.019 were so much loaded against them under the colonial system. The banks were 00:36:45.039 --> 00:36:48.980 discriminating against them in the granting of loans. The export trade firms and 00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:53.549 particularly the inaudible firms were undercutting them. And they just could not 00:36:53.569 --> 00:36:57.089 stand the challenge, and therefore many of them simply ran out of business. And 00:36:57.109 --> 00:37:01.569 the children of these great merchant princes now became the employees of the 00:37:01.589 --> 00:37:07.829 great African capitalist companies like UEC, UTC, SUA and so on. 00:37:07.849 --> 00:37:14.299 >> Colonial trading companies, British, French, Belgian, Portuguese, monopolized 00:37:14.319 --> 00:37:22.429 wholesale business with the full backing of their colonial governments. What 00:37:22.449 --> 00:37:27.679 King Leopold had called "this magnificent African cake" was beginning to yield 00:37:27.699 --> 00:37:34.289 its riches. Often those were painful days, but they have to be recalled by 00:37:34.309 --> 00:37:42.299 anyone who wishes to understand the problems of Africa now. The turmoil of today 00:37:42.319 --> 00:37:47.519 in the Congo, or Zaire, has its roots in the infamous Congo Free State of King 00:37:47.539 --> 00:37:52.449 Leopold. Here the emphasis was on the growing of rubber, and the methods used to 00:37:52.469 --> 00:38:00.130 extract it were no better than a reign of terror. Local people were forced to 00:38:00.150 --> 00:38:05.799 collect rubber under the most cruel conditions, as these old photographs show. 00:38:05.819 --> 00:38:10.759 If the rubber they collected was poor, or small in quantity, men, and sometimes 00:38:10.779 --> 00:38:17.579 women too, could expect to lose a hand or foot in punishment. Terrible things 00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:23.279 were done. An official British fact-finding commission reported, "The daily 00:38:23.299 --> 00:38:28.420 agony of an entire people unrolled itself in all its repulsive, terrifying 00:38:28.440 --> 00:38:37.389 details." Public opinion in Europe grew horrified. Gradually, the agonies were 00:38:37.409 --> 00:38:43.380 reduced. Yet huge damage had been done, moral as well as physical, and was going 00:38:43.400 --> 00:38:56.719 to cast a dark and violent shadow over the future of the Congo. Forced labor by 00:38:56.739 --> 00:39:02.730 the 1920s was practiced on a wide scale in most of the colonies. All early roads 00:39:02.750 --> 00:39:10.440 and railways were built by forced labor. Much was achieved, but the cost in life 00:39:10.460 --> 00:39:18.289 and health was sometimes catastrophic. This spectacular railway in French 00:39:18.309 --> 00:39:24.009 Equatorial Africa was built by 125,000 Africans to link the coast with 00:39:24.029 --> 00:39:30.409 Brazzaville, the inland capital. Beyond doubt, a great feat of engineering, but 00:39:30.429 --> 00:39:35.119 before a single passenger could travel on it, nearly 14,000 Africans were to die 00:39:35.139 --> 00:39:44.880 in building it. Travel in comfort came at a price. By the 1920s, the colonial 00:39:44.900 --> 00:39:50.110 railway map was complete. These lines had one central purpose: to ensure the 00:39:50.130 --> 00:39:59.199 export of minerals and other wealth, most of all from Southern Africa. European 00:39:59.219 --> 00:40:05.279 mining activity for gold, copper, zinc, diamonds transformed Southern Africa, 00:40:05.299 --> 00:40:10.059 thanks again to African labor, acquired by the usual procedure of administrative 00:40:10.079 --> 00:40:17.079 force and taxation. Conditions were hard to bear. Some 30,000 Africans died in 00:40:17.099 --> 00:40:25.029 Southern Rhodesian mines between 1904 and 1933, mostly of disease. And wages at 00:40:25.049 --> 00:40:32.319 the end of that period were lower than they'd been at the start. This labor 00:40:32.339 --> 00:41:02.339 system was called chibaro. Very old men can still remember it. Gold mining 00:41:06.980 --> 00:41:11.869 boomed. In those years of chibaro, the Southern Rhodesian mining industry 00:41:11.889 --> 00:41:17.730 produced gold worth 87 million pounds sterling, at the cost of 20 dead African 00:41:17.750 --> 00:41:28.699 miners each week, on average, for 30 years. Just as in the bigger mines of South 00:41:28.719 --> 00:41:34.699 Africa, living conditions for miners were appalling. Safety provisions were 00:41:34.719 --> 00:41:44.730 primitive. Discipline was often brutal, healthcare almost nonexistent. Prison 00:41:44.750 --> 00:42:11.409 labor was used whenever available, and that was often, and child labor too. 00:42:11.429 --> 00:42:16.269 After 1930, the whole labor system in large regions had come to depend on people 00:42:16.289 --> 00:42:22.089 having to abandon their villages and go far away to work in colonial mines or on 00:42:22.109 --> 00:42:28.699 plantations. This was called migrant labor, a huge upheaval which soon began to 00:42:28.719 --> 00:42:34.819 destroy the old stabilities of rural Africa. An official British committee in 00:42:34.839 --> 00:42:39.679 1935 reported that the old order of society was being completely undermined by 00:42:39.699 --> 00:42:50.130 migrant labor. The years ahead were going to confirm it. But it was in the 00:42:50.150 --> 00:42:56.769 Portuguese colonies, especially Angola and Mozambique, that forced labor was at 00:42:56.789 --> 00:43:02.489 its worst. Here in Mozambique, and by brutal methods, African farmers were 00:43:02.509 --> 00:43:09.039 forced to grow cotton and to sell it at prices fixed by the colonial government, 00:43:09.059 --> 00:43:14.699 prices kept so low that the farmers used to say of the cotton that they were 00:43:14.719 --> 00:43:23.329 forced to grow, that cotton was the mother of poverty. 00:43:23.349 --> 00:43:29.130 Singing The raw cotton was sent to textile factories in Portugal, and returned 00:43:29.150 --> 00:43:36.440 in the form of shirts for Africans to buy. All the profits were Portuguese. The 00:43:36.460 --> 00:43:40.909 more the farmers learned to hate cotton, the more they were forced to grow it, 00:43:40.929 --> 00:44:10.929 on pain of severe punishment.Singing The farmers in this old film had no legal 00:44:34.739 --> 00:44:39.480 means of protest, but they could express their anger by singing anti-colonial 00:44:39.500 --> 00:44:48.359 songs in their own language. There seemed, then, no way out, no hope ahead. And 00:44:48.379 --> 00:44:53.579 before long, the same disaster struck here as elsewhere. Food crops 00:44:53.599 --> 00:45:23.599 disappeared, and once-prosperous areas were hit by famine. 00:45:34.549 --> 00:45:49.420 Music In spite of African suffering, settlers arrived in growing numbers. Some 00:45:49.440 --> 00:45:54.400 were political exiles from the Portuguese dictatorship. Many were poor people, 00:45:54.420 --> 00:46:00.329 hoping for a better life. Sent out to be farmers, most preferred the easier life 00:46:00.349 --> 00:46:06.099 of the towns. They opened shops and businesses, and aimed at the success which 00:46:06.119 --> 00:46:12.690 had eluded them at home. This actually suited the official colonial doctrine. 00:46:12.710 --> 00:46:20.909 The Portuguese dictator, Marcelo Caetano, laid it down in plain words:"The 00:46:20.929 --> 00:46:48.109 blacks are to be organized and enclosed," he said, "in an economy directed by 00:46:48.129 --> 00:47:11.239 whites."Music Mass resistance was to develop later, but already even the poorest 00:47:11.259 --> 00:47:16.480 and least educated Africans could see that colonial rule had much more to take 00:47:16.500 --> 00:47:28.039 than to give. Whatever good may have come from colonial rule, has to be 00:47:28.059 --> 00:47:32.619 measured,unfortunately, against the essential aims of each of the colonial 00:47:32.639 --> 00:47:37.989 systems. These aims were frankly stated: They were to extract wealth. We've 00:47:38.009 --> 00:47:42.759 looked at some of the ways in which wealth was extracted, by the use of forced 00:47:42.779 --> 00:47:47.779 or cheap labor, by the seizure of land, by the incessant pressure on growing 00:47:47.799 --> 00:47:53.500 crops for export,rather than crops for local food needs, and always, by the 00:47:53.519 --> 00:47:59.589 deliberate treatment of Africans as inferior beings. Whatever appearances might 00:47:59.609 --> 00:48:04.069 suggest, Africans in fact were no longer prepared to accept their permanently 00:48:04.089 --> 00:48:08.929 inferior status. All over the continent, the first signs of a new political 00:48:08.949 --> 00:48:14.449 dissent had already begun to appear. In the 1920s, for example, was the protest 00:48:14.469 --> 00:48:19.099 action of Harry Thuku in Kenya. At the same time, with Casely Hayford and his 00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:24.139 companions in British West Africa. And perhaps above all, with Herbert 00:48:24.159 --> 00:48:28.949 Macaulay, often called the father of Nigerian nationalism. But their demands 00:48:28.969 --> 00:48:35.099 were small.>> Some of these inaudible were completely taken in by the British 00:48:35.119 --> 00:48:39.750 system, which they thought was a good thing, and that we should become part of 00:48:39.769 --> 00:48:45.269 that good thing. The real pressure was for the British to become a bit more 00:48:45.289 --> 00:48:50.690 liberal.>> During the 1930s, and notably with the rise to prominence of the 00:48:50.710 --> 00:48:56.429 firey but very effective Nigerian nationalist, Nnamdi Azikiwe, much stronger and 00:48:56.449 --> 00:49:02.299 more far-reaching demands began to be made. Men like Azikiwe used the press 00:49:02.319 --> 00:49:07.170 where this was possible, as it was in British West Africa. They now sought a 00:49:07.190 --> 00:49:11.779 mass audience. Politics moved out of polite drawing rooms into the clamor of the 00:49:11.799 --> 00:49:17.650 streets.>> So the resistance movement took many forms and it was not confined 00:49:17.670 --> 00:49:22.309 only to the elite, as some people tend to think. In fact it was also evident in 00:49:22.329 --> 00:49:28.079 the rural area, and even among the ordinary farmers and the ordinary workers. 00:49:28.099 --> 00:49:32.500 >> One form of mass resistance took shape in a big cocoa hold-up, in the Gold 00:49:32.519 --> 00:49:38.920 Coast, when farmers demanded fairer prices. Once again, the press could be used 00:49:38.940 --> 00:49:44.190 to good effect.>> But unfortunately, in the 1930s there was never any 00:49:44.210 --> 00:49:50.359 coordination between the protests of the rural folk and the farmers, and the 00:49:50.379 --> 00:49:56.339 protests being organized by the elite. And this is why the resistance movement 00:49:56.359 --> 00:50:02.989 was not very successful.>> But now, in 1935, came a new and savage challenge to 00:50:03.009 --> 00:50:08.170 African hopes of progress: another colonial invasion, Fascist Italy's brutal 00:50:08.190 --> 00:50:15.339 assault on Ethiopia,then called Abyssinia.>> No power on earth now seems able to 00:50:15.359 --> 00:50:20.373 hold up Italy's sweeping advance across Abyssinia's rain-swept mountains. Now 00:50:20.393 --> 00:50:24.554 Dessie has been captured. From there a direct road leads to Addis Ababa, so 00:50:24.574 --> 00:50:27.940 perhaps it's only a question of time as to when the victorious Italian troops 00:50:27.940 --> 00:50:34.319 will march into the capital, and the emperor will have to sue for peace. 00:50:34.339 --> 00:50:38.429 >> With the colonial powers sounding quite pleased about this invasion, Italy's 00:50:38.449 --> 00:50:42.549 armies pushed on, against afar weaker adversary, explosions and bombed and 00:50:42.569 --> 00:50:50.239 shelled their way to success. But Africans were outraged. 00:50:50.259 --> 00:50:55.989 >> For the first time, the blacks all over the world, not even Africa alone, but 00:50:56.009 --> 00:51:03.539 the blacks all over the world felt that they have been attacked. You know, 00:51:03.559 --> 00:51:09.199 Ethiopia and Liberia, were the only two countries in Africa that were able to 00:51:09.219 --> 00:51:13.389 maintain their sovereign existence during the period of the scramble and the 00:51:13.409 --> 00:51:17.289 occupation of the continent by the imperial powers. And Ethiopia therefore 00:51:17.309 --> 00:51:21.519 became the symbol of hope, not only for Africa but for all the black people all 00:51:21.539 --> 00:51:28.500 over. Ethiopia was looked upon as the symbol of the revival and the regaining of 00:51:28.519 --> 00:51:33.170 the independence and sovereignty of Africa. And therefore when this invasion 00:51:33.190 --> 00:51:42.329 took place, it meant the complete snuffing out of this last beam of hope. 00:51:42.349 --> 00:51:47.829 >> Italy's troops entered Addis Ababa, capital of a now subjected Ethiopia, and 00:51:47.849 --> 00:51:54.609 still there came no more than verbal protest from outside powers. Yet Ethiopia's 00:51:54.629 --> 00:51:59.480 defeat, painfully confirmed when her people laid down their arms, sent out a 00:51:59.500 --> 00:52:06.579 call for action to Africans everywhere.>> Indeed for some of us, 1935 now is 00:52:06.599 --> 00:52:12.989 being considered as the more appropriate date for the beginning of the modern 00:52:13.009 --> 00:52:20.710 nationalist period of African history,rather than 1939, or even 1945. Because we 00:52:20.730 --> 00:52:25.940 believe that, but for the breakout of the, outbreak of the Second World War, in 00:52:25.960 --> 00:52:32.500 1939, probably the struggle for independence would have begun from 1935, as a 00:52:32.519 --> 00:52:39.199 result of the indignation, as a result of the anger, as a result of the 00:52:39.219 --> 00:52:44.750 emotions, as a result of the strong feelings of anti-imperialism that were 00:52:44.769 --> 00:52:51.029 aroused by the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.>> Those feelings were aroused above 00:52:51.049 --> 00:52:56.829 all among the few who could win a modern education at schools like this one: 00:52:56.849 --> 00:53:01.279 Achimota in the Gold Coast, where Kwame Nkrumah, future leader of the country's 00:53:01.299 --> 00:53:06.639 independence movement had been a student. Young people began to read whatever 00:53:06.659 --> 00:53:11.230 anti-colonial newspapers they could find. Even in the midst of discouraging 00:53:11.250 --> 00:53:19.480 years, hope flourished afresh. A new generation of educated Africans, some of 00:53:19.500 --> 00:53:24.949 them trained here at Achimota, was reaching maturity. And then came the 00:53:24.969 --> 00:53:29.509 tremendous upheavals of the Second World War, surging with revolutionary force 00:53:29.529 --> 00:53:35.699 through the entire colonial world. By 1945, as we shall see in our next 00:53:35.719 --> 00:54:05.719 program, the scene was set for great dramas in a struggle for independence. 00:54:35.065 --> 00:54:35.980 Music