Colonial Change 1918-1950

Reading Questions for AFRICANS, Chapter 10:

Economic Change

• What was the major consequence of Africa's colonial period? 
• What's a lorry, and what effects did it have?
• What trades grew and which ones collapsed?
• How did agriculture change in this period?
• What were the impediments to capitalism? (p. 224)
• What happened with European agriculture?
• Why did Africans become migrants, and what effects did migration have? (pp. 225ff)
• What were African expectations and realities of urban life?
• What were consequences of the Great Depression in Africa?

Education and Religion

• What was the draw of education? 
• What was the main distinction between Indian and African education outcomes?
• Why were young people attracted to Christianity?
• How did Christianity interact with indigenous practices and traditions?
• Why did independent churches come about?
• How did the Islam contrast with Christianity in this period? (p. 236)
• How did indigenous religions adapt?
• What kinds of movements became a characteristic of the colonial period?

Political Change

• What transformed Africa's politics? 
• Were colonial powers interested in maintaining control or transferring it to Africans?
• What is the Muslim Brotherhood, and where and when was it founded?
• What led to terrorist violence in Tunisia and militant insurrection in Algeria?
• What was the fate of Italy's colonies after after WW II?
• Who is Haile Selassie? Why is he important in Jamaica? Look him up here.
• What were the two major political levels in Africa? Why?
• What/who fostered tribal identities and why?
• Given that "territorial boundaries and identities were colonial creations," what did Africans focus political action on instead?
• Why did WW II focus African politics towards nationalism, and what were the main challenges nationalists faced?
• What was the Mau Mau guerrilla war? Look it up here.
• Why was Britain afraid of Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland joining South Africa?

The Family

• How did some young men gain greater freedom, and how did the old respond?
• Did the status of women change? (check region by region)
• Overall was there more change or more continuity in family relationships in the 20th century?

Health and Demography

• What was the most important consequence of colonial occupation? 
• What reduced mortality in times of famine?
• What was the focus of European medicine?
• Who were colonial Africa's "chief reservoir of misery"? What was the source of the problem?
• Was increased birthrate or a declining deathrate the dominant mechanism in population growth?
• What reduced infant mortality?

Colonialism

Reading Questions for SHORT, Chapter 5:

• How was colonial rule in Africa different from colonial rule in Latin America?
• How has the study of the colonial period changed?
• What are the "key facts" about European conquest?
• Who resisted the Europeans? (see alsoAFRICANS,  p. 201)
• What/who facilitated the conquest?
• What's special about Ethiopia?
• What was the Maji Maji rebellion? (see also AFRICANS, p. 202)
• The "first successful human rights campaign of the 20th century" targeted what?
• What impact did WW I have?
• How did French and British approaches to controlling colonies differ?
• Why did some Africans embrace colonialism?
• How did Europeans run Africa "on the cheap"?
• What caused widespread social change? (p. 106)
• Define "ornamentalism."
• What explains, in part, the political authoritarianism of contemporary Africa?

Reading Questions for AFRICANS, Chapter 9: 

• How did Britain manipulate other European countries (p. 196) and interests (p. 197) in Africa?
• What brought about the Anglo-Boer War and what were its outcomes and costs?
• Who made up most colonial armies? (p. 199)
• What was more burdensome than taxes?
• Who were the most powerful Africans in colonial Africa? (pp. 205f)
• What did European governments handle and what did they leave to private enterprise? (p. 209)
• Which region experienced the most brutal exploitation and why?
• What effect did railroad building have?
• Why was famine such an issue during the early colonial period?

Video from this week's class can be found on-line here.

Midterm Questions II

The Midterm Exam will be on Wednesday, 10/15. It will consist of three (3) essay questions that will cover broad themes of African history. The questions will require you to include evidence from more than one chapter of the textbook. The questions will take 15 minutes to answer on average. The exam will be open-book and open-note. 

The questions for the midterm are

1. What have been the obstacles to population growth in Africa and the strategies people have adopted to overcome those obstacles?
2. Where and why have Christianity and Islam taken hold in Africa?
3. Outline slavery and slave trading throughout African history.

Midterm Questions

Here are the four we considered in class today:

1. What has been the impact of outsiders?
2. Contrast regions of Africa just before the Scramble for Africa (Chapter 10)
3. What role has climate and environment played in African human population and societies?
4. How/where have Christianity and Islam taken hold in Africa and how have they related to indigenous belief systems?

These are possibly too broad. Here are questions from previous semesters:

• How are Africans and African societies diverse? 
• Outline the history and processes of the Atlantic slave trade.
• What were the consequences of Abolition?
• Compare the Dutch and British in the history of southern Africa.
• Describe the influences and adaptations of Islam in Africa.
• What were the obstacles to population growth in Africa?
• What impact did long distance trade imports have on Africa?
• Why was Africa slow to develop complex states?
• What are the central themes of African history and the methods and disciplines used for African history? 

I would like to throw in a question about the history of all slavery in Africa rather than just the Atlantic slave trade.

Nineteenth Century & Regional Diversity

On Friday we will discuss and decide what essay questions will be on the midterm exam. In your own best interest, please give it some thought ahead of time.

Check out this map- that Jean-Paul found--it is particularly pertinent for this chapter.

Reading Questions for AFRICANS, Chapter 8:

• Northern Africa: What was the chief reason for demographic stagnation? 
• How did Muhammed Ali change Egypt? What did the British do about it? 
• What did a strong Egypt mean for the Sudan?
• What was notable about Ethiopia in this period?
• Why did the French invade Algeria? What were the initial effects of the conquest?
• How did attempts to modernize effect Tunisia and Morocco?
• The West African Savanna: This was a period of political fragmentation but huge growth in what?
• What was the most important event in nineteenth-century West Africa?
• Why was the Sokoto Caliphate able to endure?
• What made Hausaland the most prosperous region in tropical Africa?
• How did slavery there contrast with South African estate slavery?
• Southern Africa: Who created a large Zulu kingdom, and how did he do it? 
• In contrast, how did the Sotho-Tswana people overcome segmentation? How did they resist white aggression?
• How was the Lesotho kingdom created?
• Why did the Britain introduce 5000 British settlers into the Eastern Cape in 1820?
• What was the "Great Trek"? 
• What is "Cape liberalism"?
• How did the Africans view missionaries? What about the Zulu king?
• What may have aided growth in South Africa?
• How did the discovery of diamonds change the political situation?
• Eastern Africa: What role did the Oman play in East Africa and what effect did it have on Swahili culture? 
• What were the main imports and exports, and how were they transported?
• Why did Livingstone say that eastern Africa was the open sore of the world?
• What beneficial effects did long-distance trade have?
• What was most responsible for population decline?
• What was the context for the ensuing colonial rule of Africa?

Atlantic Slave Trade

Remember that Research Proposals (about 1 paragraph) are due on Friday, October 3, on TurnItIn.com.

Reading Questions, Part I (AFRICANS, Chapter 7):

• Slavery had existed in Africa as a response to what shortage? (p. 133)
• What kind of societies in Africa refused to participate in the slave trade and resisted slavery the most? (p. 133)
• Why did the Portuguese start trading in slaves? (p. 133)
• Why did the King of Kongo try to back out of the trade and what was the response? (p. 134)
• Why in 1519 did the Portuguese begin shipping slaves directly to the Americas? (p. 134)
• What sources are used to determine the numbers of slaves exported from Africa? (p. 135)
• Why did slave trading boom in the mid 17th century? (p. 135)
• What percentage of exported slaves went to the Caribbean? Brazil? North America? (p. 135)
• How could someone become a slave? (p. 136f.)
• What were slaves traded for? (pp. 138f.)
• What percentage of enslaved people died before they even started to work as slaves? (p. 139)
• How does one estimate the demographic impact of the slave trade on Africa? (pp. 141f.)
• What were the political consequences of the trade in Africa? (pp. 143ff.)
• Did the trade effect Western Africa's economic development? Why or why not? (p. 150)
• How did the trade influence religion and medicine? What is the Lemba society? (pp. 151f)
• What European nation abolished the trade, and what did they do to enforce the ban? (pp. 152f.)
• Was the transition to legitimate (non-slave) trade entirely beneficial? (pp. 154-158)
• Why did the Kongo Kingdom embrace Christianity? (pp. 158f)

Reading Questions, Part II (SHORT, Chapter 4):

• "How does the history of Africa fit into that of the rest of the world?"
• Describe two examples of how Islam and Christianity were integrated into local African cultures.
• What do the Atlantic slave trade and the Islamic slave trade have in common, and how do they differ?
• Would you agree that the Atlantic slave trade has been given too much prominence? (p. 81)
• What are two things make Baquaqua' narrative unusual/unique?
• Why should the idea of diaspora include Africa itself? (p. 85)
• What is notable about the Sokoto caliphate? (p. 88)
• What changed the balance of power in many regions? (p. 89)
• How do the four themes of this chapter illustrate the trick of "getting the balance right" between the agency of Africans and the impact of global forces (done/done to)?

Colonizing Eastern & Southern Africa

Reading Questions for AFRICANS, Chapter 6, pp. 100-126:

• What four central themes does the history of southern and eastern Africa share with western Africa?
• How does their history differ and why? (record, values, environment, interactions)
• What role does pastoralism play in the east and south? How does it affect settlement, society, and culture?
• fissiparation? (p. 103)
• What complex changes took place in what is now Zimbabwe? (p. 103f)
• Describe Great Zimbabwe. (pp. 104f. and 121f.)
• How did the kingdom of Munhumutapa interact with the Portuguese? (p. 105)
• Why were cattle less important in Central Africa?
• Describe Luba and the two major political systems it shaped.
• What could people do to keep their rulers in line?
• In the East African savanna, what were the Bantu up to, and where did the Maasai come from?
• What evidence is there for the region being stateless? (p. 109)
• How did cattle give their owners a demographic advantage? (pp. 109 and 118)
• In the Great Lakes region of East Africa states like Bunyoro and Buganda developed later. How did those states operate, and how did they reduce succession problems?
• How does the author say the distinction between Tutsi and Hutu may have evolved? (p. 111)
• What new crops were adopted in eastern and southern Africa, and where did they come from?
• "Human mobility was the essence of this empty world" -- list reasons people might move. (p. 114)
• What precautions were taken against the risk of famine, and what increased mortality in famine years? Who rarely suffered famine? (p. 116)
• What does the Zulu proverb, "the feud is in the testicle," mean? (p. 118)
• Did southern African women have a lower or higher status than western African women? Why? What about the women of Central Africa? (p. 119)
• Why did patriarchal, cattle-owning societies have severe generational tension, and how did they handle it? (p. 120)
• Was slavery more or less common in eastern and southern Africa than in West Africa? (p. 120)
• Why was trade more limited in southern and eastern African than in West Africa? (p. 122)
• How did San and Khoikhoi religion differ from Bantu religion? (pp. 124f.)

The Dutch plus Historical Sources
Reading Questions for AFRICANS, pp. 126-130:

• When did the first Dutch colonists land in what is now South Africa?
• Who was living at the Cape of Good Hope when the Dutch arrived?
• How did indigenous peoples make their livings and how did they interact?
• What were the Dutch East India Company's plans for the Cape initially?
• Why did the Dutch import slaves and from where?
• What were conditions for slaves in the Dutch colony?
• What was "the Dutch regime's lasting legacy to South Africa"?
• Who were the Trekboers? Why did they think of themselves as Afrikaners?
• When did the British take control of the Cape from the Dutch?

Reading Questions for SHORT, Chapter 3:

• What were the two battles that pioneers of African historical studies had to fight? (p. 49)
• What passed for African history before 1950 and what were its flaws? (p. 50)
• What were some early indigenous written records? (pp. 51f.)
• What role did the Bible play in increasing indigenous written records? (p. 53)
• How about colonial rule? Why? (p. 56)
• Define "oral tradition." (p. 57)
• What historical information can and cannot be gotten out of oral traditions? (pp. 58ff.)
• Name five other disciplines that historians have mined for the African past and explain their advantages and limitations. (pp. 60ff.)
• What are the three types of written records by outsiders are being reevaluated? (p. 67ff.)