African Reactions to Colonial Rule

The Meaning of African Reactions to Colonial Rule

Explain the meaning of African reactions to colonial rule

Reaction means response to something (whether in a negative or positive manner). Africans' reaction to colonialists highly depended on the nature of Africans in the area and the colonial governments’ style (it depended on the ways/methods used by the colonial rulers on imposition of colonial rules).

The Various Form of African Reactions

Explain the various form of African reactions

This response of Africans to colonial rulers can be divided into two types being active and passive.

Active

Africans responded negatively against Europeans

Passive

Africans obeyed colonial rules.

Nature of African response to colonial imposition

The nature of Africans’ response to colonial rule imposition can be divided into four forms:

• Violence
• Non Violence
• Mercenary
• Adoption

The Causes of and Reasons for the Different African Reactions

Account for the causes of and reasons for the different African reactions

Violence

This involves Africans who tended to use weapons against colonial rules. This method was highly used by the strangest African societies such as:

• Abushiri and Coastal people against Germans
• Hehe against Germans
• Ndebele against British
• Jaja of Opobo against British

Why the use of violence

The reasons are:

• Some Africans were politically and economically strong and ere able to resist the Europeans.
• Harsh treatment from colonial rulers forced Africans to use violence.
• Africans were exploited for natural and human resources and started to fight back.

Non violence

Some Africans decided to flee their homes our of fear of European colonialists and some of them decided to boil seeds before planting them, striking against the colonial rule. Example, non-violence was used by the Maasai and Haya (in East Africa).

Why the use of non violence

The reasons are:

• Africans who used this system were politically and economically week.
• Nature of economic activities, It was not easy for nomadic pastoralist to use violence.
• Some Africans were affected by diseases e.g. Jiggers for the Haya.

Mercenary

This was a response where some African societies started to hire soldiers from other societies e.g. Nyamwezi tribe used to hire soldiers from the Ngoni tribe (soldiers known as Rugaruga) to fight against the colonial rulers.

Why the use of mercenaries

Some of the societies were weak hence they needed assistance from other soldiers.

Adaptation

Some African societies tended to copy the methods of fighting from the European colonial masters during their friendship.These African societies started to use the methods to fight against colonial rule e.g. Menelek of Ethiopia who fought against Italians using this method.

Why the use of adaptations

It was due to the weakness of some African societies who tended to copy the methods of fighting.

The Factors which Determined the Nature of African Reactions

Assess the factors which determined the nature of African reactions

Factors which determine the nature of African reactions included military strength, ideological beliefs, diseases, economic strength, existence of missionaries, geographical position, nature of the state, the role of leaders, level of colonial exploitation and political awareness among the Africans.

Posted in: