• “tribe”

  • stereotypes of backwardness
  • oversimplifies discussions of conflicts
    • “irrational”, “petty tribal differences”
  • justified slavery
    • thanks christianity…
  • intellectual laziness

• against binary meta-narratives

  • “man-africanism”
  • “africa is rising”; “poverty is a product of racism”
    • benefitial to corrupt/exploitative/authoritarian politicians
  • where the nuance at

• local reporting

• people’s own perspectives of their history

western concept of slavery

• worked on farms
• seen as property, not humans
• few rights and little autonomy
• slave status hereditary
• distinct social class

slavery in africa

• seemed to live/work like their masters
• not a distinct class
• sometimes turned down offers of freedom
• not always unhappy

issues with the western model of slavery

• doesn’t explain slavery in africa
  • treats it as a deviation from the norm
• born out of guilt over atlantic slave trade

rights-in-person

• transactions
• bride price (incl. child price)
• belonging to vs belonging in

definitions of slavery

• african lineage “own” their members (lineage wealth)
• property → rights over objects

modes of production of enslaved people

• buying margi orphans
• capturing abandoned infants
• bartered for grain during famine
• criminals were sold
• tricked or kidnapped
• …

use of slaves in africa

• labor in fields
• soliders
• servants
• human sacrifice victims
• …

(corporate) “kin group”/outsiders

under western slavery, once you’re enslaved, it’s joever. slavery vs freedom/autonomy

in african societies, slavery vs belonging. some social mobility among the enslaved. freedom != individual autonomy, but attachment to a kin group or patron

• intergenerational mobility
• affective mobility
• wealth mobility

Afonso I: “oopsie”

• dependency
• insecure freedom
• suicide as a form of resistance

M’Baye

• dependency theory
• shift from self-sufficient economy to dependence on slave trade
• political instability and conflict
• africans weren’t passive actors: some were complicit in the slave trade
  • feudal classes
  • strengthened african warrior and relgiious aristocracies
  • predominantly helped european economies
• continuous exploitation of african resources (including, but not limited to, people)
• social impacts
  • labour shortage
  • african women burdened with work
  • insecurity
  • widening gaps between social classes

christian missions in the 19th century attempted to evangelize using narratives of enslaved people.

• afraid of stirring up resistance
  • allyship with the important men
• taxation of important men
• care about accumulation of resources, not about abina’s fate

king leopold’s ghost

• lugard’s indirect rule
• high commissioner in nigeria (1900)
• indirect rule
  • administrative device
  • political doctrine religious dogma
  • make chiefs rule over their own people
  • native authority can appoint/dismiss subordinates
  • chiefs don’t have their own army (no real power)
  • chiefs must provide service to the colonizers
  • “headmen” collect taxes
• not much direct rule in africa
• environment aspects, exploitation
  • alienation from land
    • justified based on ideas about africans not utilizing land properly
    • pastoralism (supposedly “wasteful”, uncivilized)

Forced conscription §

The Lieutenant of Kouta §

• returning soldiers
  • pensions
  • mixed reception
    • drinking (in a muslim society)
• siriman’s father forcefully moved out of chiefdom

Maji Maji Rebellion (1905–1907) §

• factors
  • taxes
  • forced to cultivate cash crops
  • forced labour
    • torture
• anticolonial movement
• religious leader with rizz
  • spirituality
  • early example
  • mobilization
  • some force
• famine as a military tactic
• wildlife conservation policy
  • conservation? more like prohibition
  • land use restricted
  • rip crops
    • resentment
  • forest-related spiritual connections screwed
    • unable to worship
  • keep people away from the forest
    • no evading taxes
    • social control
  • form of power exertion

Mau Mau Rebellion §

• low pays
• imprisonment for little cause; indignation
• peasant uprising against the british
• demanding the return of land
• land dispossessed
• they target some white settler families
• mau mau: 32 white civ, thousands black
• mau mau assassinate chiefs headmen
• formal state of emergency
• executive order detention camps <- mau mau, but also normies
• propaganda. narrative about mau mau. dehumanization of the enemy
• human right abuses by the british army <- internal investigation
  • assault, rape
• perp, or cover-up, conceal, deceive
• case settled out of court in 2013
• diplomatic apology. brit govt took no responsibility
  • “um it was the colonial govt!!1”
• suppression of evidence
• commission to investigate officers’ crimes run by people close to those committing them
• young resigns
• brits win military war against mau mau by ~mid 1950
• detention camps. goal: de-maumau, get confess. long imprisonment
• camps expensive
• torture

Africa Must Unite —Kwame Nkrumah §

Chapter: Building Socialism in Ghana

• employment, housing, equal opp for edu and cultural advancement
• colonial rule => no accumulation of capital => no private investment in construction
• can’t turn to private interests
  • “greedy interests of a small coterie of individuals”
• public ownership of the means of production (land and resources)
• socialism: use of means to fulfil people’s needs
• need to lay foundations upon which socialist means can be built
• increased agro yields
• wanna make investment in ghana’s development lucrative, but can’t give free rein to private interests
• some reinvestment in national development
• reduce imports by significantly improving agro productivvity
  • precondition for industrial growth
• convert subsistence farms to commodity producing farms
• prioritize investments that quickly produce capital, reduce imports, increase exports, reduce inequality
• edu, social welfare, health programmes <=> good, but also human investment
• self-investment in development. don’t wanna encourage foreign investment and have the money leave ghana
• initial devel. funds <- taxes; decrease later
• increased productivity => wealth => gradual increase in std of living
• allow for healthy workers. set wages appropriately
• prioritize social services for all over increased wages for some
  • especially early on
• new attitude necessary; socialist perspective, socialist drive
  • can’t afford to drain labour/material resources
• separate business and politics
• prioritize “productive” subjects in education for urgency
  • “purely literary and academic” subjects are luxuries for now
• literacy important
• unemployment: big problem. workers brigade. training.
• trade unions: “entirely different” role than in a capitalist society
• trade unions associated with the govt. claim: justified by popularly-voted govt
• all-african trade union federation
• pan-african. avoid being swept up in cold war politics. don’t let imperialism re-enter
• democracy. people’s involvement. political consciousness of the people
• “refresher courses in party politicla teaching”
• “Teachers and instructors are recruited directly from schools and teaching training colleges for part-time work; others are prepared at the Party’s training center, […] which is responsible for the Party’s general political education”
  • it’s giving… propaganda?

Ujamaa §

• sense of security
• no need to hoard wealth
• purpose of society: secure
• children and descendants too
• hospitality
• no parasites
• employer vs employee — foreign idea
• accumulating power to dominate/exploit — also foreign and contradictory to, incompatible with the desiderata
• “re-educate”, old attitude
• reject capitalist mentality, reject capitalist methods
• land belongs to the community, not to individuals
• landowners are parasites
• conditional entitlement to land: must use
• demanding shares proportional to one’s share of material wealth contribution: bad, capitalist mindset
• fair in relation to the whole society; shouldn’t be at the cost of some other group of workers
• european socialism rooted in the landed/landless dichotomy; class war integral; inseparable from capitalism
• african unity
• ujamaa := african/tribal socialism

Burkina Faso §

• Thomas Sankara

• marxist

• woman rights chad

• “wear local”

• repressive

• replaced teachers with untrained students

• assassinated by friend

• u.s.: offer “western alternatives” to “so-called marxist regimes”

• “food for progress” “free market approaches”

• “reduce political risks in transitioning from socialist econ systems to free market” (paraphrase)

• u.s. @burkina faso: “influence […] toward moderate behaviour”

• economic assistance = leverage

• difficult to control … sankar’s rhetoric of self-reliance

• b.f. denounced u.s. imperialism + sided with cuba, soviets, nicaragua

• aid reduction

• u.s.: pls no radical leftist rhetoric pwease pwease pwease

• sankara trying to wean off of foreign aid

• castro pally pal

• inspired by cuba

• pan-african

• anti-imperialist chad

• womens rights

• famous speech at unga

• some exaggeration, misinfo

• visited nicaragua too. u.s. unimpressed

• goal: reduce dependence on western donors

• conflict with u.s. ambassador; u.s. aid forestry program cancelled; aid reduced