Colonisation impacted the entire societal life of African communities as it brought about not only new ways of doing things, but also of thinking, believing, and living. A large-scale impact on how people live is, in other words, an impact on their ‘culture’ which sociologists define as ‘a people’s way of life.’
Though colonisation and slave trade are considered by some as things of the past, they remain subjects of conversation due to their impact on the continent of Africa. Africa as a whole was colonised by Western countries for over a century, though the slave trade had persisted for over four centuries. Tanganyika was colonised by Germany from 1884 to 1919, and by Britain from 1919 to 1961. Zanzibar was colonised by the Portuguese from 1498 to 1698, then by the Omani Sultanate from 1868 to 1890, and by the British from 1890 to 1963.
Colonisation impacted the entire societal life of African communities as it brought about not only new ways of doing things, but also of thinking, believing, and living. A large-scale impact on how people live is, in other words, an impact on their ‘culture’ which sociologists define as ‘a people’s way of life.’
The time of colonisation ‘proper’ spans a century, about three to four generations if we consider a generation to be 25 to 30 years. This period severely disrupted cultural continuity, creating a significant disconnect between pre-colonial ways of life and today's traditions and history. It has also only been 110 years since the abolition of slave trade in our land in 1916, just four generations before the young adults of today. Rather than assign blame, it is important to recognise that, continent-wide, the most distressing years in African history are the epochs of slavery and colonisation.
We can begin by critiquing the labelling of cultures as “primitive.” A saying goes, “If you want to kill a dog, give it a bad name!” This was exactly what happened. Indigenous industries, artworks, artefacts, customs, beliefs, and languages were all labelled as “primitive”, meaning meaningless, “uncivilized,” and not worth anything. However, reason defeats such a position, as cultural worth is accorded equal dignity across cultures. The measure of technological and social progress was what the colonisers had in Europe; it is a man-made ideal.
Moreover, colonisation suppressed and devalued the already developed systems of knowledge, self-governance, religion, trade, law, and sustainability practices that had evolved over centuries and were deeply rooted in the communities in question. Young people learnt the best trade secrets of their traditional communities, which in turn assured the community not only its sustenance, but its sustainability.
In place of all these functional and systemic legacies, they (colonisers/colonialists) took it as their duty to “civilise” the African societies. This disruption, among other things, has endured as a legacy of those complicated years, which have left only thin and weak threads linking the generation today with the historical, linguistic, artistic, and cultural corpus that existed among our people ten generations ago. The question now comes: Can the young generation today maintain the integrity of what they received in fragile parts, and hand it over as a meaningful legacy to those who are yet to come?
When we look at African governance, despite its variety, we see one thing in common: instability and fragility. Why is it this way? I believe it is because we are learning a new way to govern ourselves, a way that has no organic roots with who we are or with our cultures. This is not a justification of the chaotic socio-political state in most African countries, but a call for a deeper look into the fundamental causes of the chaos and an ‘almost-anarchy’ violent state of affairs all over the continent.
In history, monarchies thrived in African kingdoms, with some emerging even as threats to European kingdoms of the time. But the moment democracy was introduced, the chaos rather thrived, proving it to be a system that only works after a long time when the independence of the legal system has matured enough to safeguard the democratic principles chosen to guide the socio-political space without bias.
Even deeper questions can be asked regarding the authenticity of African states' sovereignty as independent states that first manage their affairs for the good of their people, as their first priority. The wave of neo-colonialism embedded in the global economy hits hard on African states, making us not truly free due to debts, alliances, etc., without which our affairs in the global space can be even more complicated.
The death of our cultural systems, be it organic or enforced, hits hard on society today, as we would be better off living in a framework engineered inside out by our ancestors, as such systems mature with time. Today, most of our education excludes what we need to know about our roots; we tend to go more global. We use a curriculum built by people who do not even use the same one in their countries; a stumbling block many African countries will take time to surpass.
What changes a nation and brings genuine growth is the worldview of who they are as a people in the genuine sense, and that is impossible without a deeper grasp of history and rootedness in their cultural systems.
Shimbo Pastory is an advocate for positive social transformation and a student of the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.
