African Colonialism

Having taken African Politics last semester I was excited to delve deeper into the history of the continent this semester. I was thankful to have some general knowledge of the continent going into the class because we covered a lot of material that expanded upon what I already knew and provided a plethora of new information for me to digest. Out of all the material that our class covered this semester the three events that resonated with me the most were the independence of Ethiopia, “legitimate” commerce, and the role of missionaries in the colonialism of Africa.
Learning about Ethiopia and how it maintained its independence during a time when the rest of the African continent was being colonialized implanted itself in my memory throughout the semester. It was interesting to learn about what made Ethiopia …show more content…
Before this class I had a pretty positive image of missionaries in Africa. When most people think of missionaries, they do not usually think of the negative affects they bring to the area in which they are working. Missionaries greatly impacted the African continent during colonialism. They brought with them European religion, education, and culture. While their intentions might have been good, they severely impact African culture and changed their way of life forever. Another negative affect of missionaries in Africa is that they set the theme globally that “Africa needed to be improved”. This added to the creation of many stereotypes, prejudice, and racist thought that Africans are less than other groups of people and sadly some of these thoughts perpetuate in today’s society. Having been on a medical and religious mission trip to Africa, studying this struck a cord with me. It has made me evaluate the type of work I have done on the continent in the past and will make me more cautious with work I chose to do in the