Colonization Of Africa

With the collapse of colonial rule primarily in the 1950s and 1960s, many post-colonial African societies had to confront the transition to a newly-found independence i.e. self-governance, as well as deal with the question of what it means to be a ‘post-colonial African’ country. The challenge often led to what may be considered as a crisis of identity. At the forefront of this debate was, and continues to be, a hotly contested conversation of ‘tradition’ versus ‘modernity’, and whether both of these ideas can comfortably co-exist. Fundamentally, two questions underscore the argument: What does it mean to be African and how does a postcolonial modern Africa operate in terms of authentic and indigenous governance? The differing views on the …show more content…
“The scramble for Africa” that occured during 1881 and 1914 was the separation and colonisation of African countries by European countries. The colonisation of Africa by Europeans meant that they brought their ideologies, culture and religion to African countries and enforced them on Africans “... some Africans alienated from their traditional society, are impelled to acquire the techniques and social forms of the dominant group”(Magubane, 1971: 419). This meant that colonisation lead to the African identities being suppressed. This can be illustrated in 1960s in Southern Africa, more specifically Zambia. Copperbelt in Zambia had become a mining town meaning that it was an industrialized town. The industrialization of this city meant that it was considered “modern” which meant “urbanized” (Ferguson, 1999:4). Urbanization was seen as a movement towards a more westernized type of ‘industrial modernity’ (Ferguson, 1999:5), this meant that if an African country was urbanizing it was westernizing. Therefore, “an urbanizing Africa was a modernizing one” (Ferguson, 1999:5). Due to the fact that Copperbelt had become industrialized it meant that there were more jobs for African people and as a result there was an influx of Africans that had left their villages and had moved to Copperbelt. This meant that they had to adapt to the new city life and had to figure out what it meant to live in an urbanized city. This meant that workers were caught between what it meant to be be rural and what it meant to be urban and that often meant “ contrasting between ‘modern’ and ‘traditional,’ ‘African’ versus ‘ European’...” ( Ferguson,1999:83). In order to live in the city they had to fully drop their ‘rural’ identity and ideology and start living like the settlers, the Europeans. And if they decide to hold onto their traditions were seen as “ holding on to ‘preurban patterns’ of behavior and values” (Ferguson,