Ladies & Gentlemen, it’s clear that,
The European imperialist designs and pressures of the late nineteenth century provoked African political and diplomatic responses and eventually military resistance. During and after the Berlin Conference various European countries sent out agents to sign so-called treaties of protection with the leaders of African societies, states, kingdoms, decentralized societies, and empires.
The differential interpretation of these treaties by the contending forces often led to conflict between both parties and eventually to military encounters. For Europeans, these treaties meant that Africans had signed away their sovereignties to European powers; but for Africans, the treaties were merely diplomatic and commercial friendship treaties. After discovering that they had in effect been defrauded and that the European powers now wanted to impose and exercise political authority in their lands, African rulers organized militarily to resist the seizure of their lands and the imposition of colonial domination. However, it’s also clear that even after realising that a white Man had acted as a fraudster , some notable African kings went ahead and aided them to continuously defraud their lands on promises of tokens. For instance in my own Uganda , the Kabaka of Buganda for fear of the strongman Omukama Kabalega without second thought allied with a white imperialist to fully colonise Uganda. The tokens came in form of Land, guns and other material gains. This act alone of the Kabaka to ally with a white Man against a fellow African was completely betrayal and treacherous and of course it portrayed how weak the Kabaka was in face of defence of his Kingdom. In lands like of the Igbo and Zulu and of course Bunyoro it was big shame for a man to fear a fellow man.
Like Menelik II of Abyssinia had mounted enough resistance against Italian invaders and protected his people’s independence, Omukama Kabalega equally resisted a white Man to the bone. However, he was defeated in the long run due to the superiority of the British who were being aided by Africans . The Lamogi rebellion in the North was also condensed .Basically we were stripped of our dignity by a white Man with the help of our own Africans we of course call brothers . I may not have the luxury of laying blame on the Banyankole because at the time of the attack on their kingdom they couldn’t resist because most of them were suffering from jiggers and given the nature of their land , it was safer to surrender to save themselves . In other lands kings like Jaja of Opobo said “He who makes powder must win the battle”. Technically it was handingba white man victory over the African people .
Were the imperialists to be blamed or the Africans themselves ? Till today it remains obscure among the Afrocentric scholars of whether to have the cross rested on the shoulders of Africans themselves or the invaders…
The Generation today will certainly fall for only what’s written and won’t go an extra mile to research a little more so as to verily establish who should carry the cross. Africa for approximately half a century a White man (Imperialist) left but Africa is still troubled with demons and I guess ghosts from the forests.
This certainly takes me to Zimbabwe where since 1980 the economy has come on failing slowly by slowly that today its if not the only country in the world that uses foreign currency as legal medium of exchange and at 92 President Robert Mugabe whose sight needs treatment in Singapore every month claims he’s still a young man to lead the nation . Days ago he was endorsed by his party ZANU -PF as its flagbearer in the next year elections. Logically this tells me I don’t have to continue with a written Notion that imperialists are responsible for what’s happening in Africa. At some point Africans are equally responsible for the mess our motherland is facing
When I look at the blame game down here in my country uganda and the struggle over who deserves a Lions share over the national cake I feel nobody deserves it but Bunyoro not Ankole and certainly Not Buganda . But have we had even a minute to respect the Banyoro for having tried to resist a white Man ? If not then how can we praise a collaborator I always call a traitor for helping a white Man strip us naked ? Of course one will say did they have a choice ? Yes they did . They should have died resisting . That was a choice to make but because they were selfish and cowards they didn’t take it .
Qn: When you hand over your property and freedom freely, do u go ahead to blame the beneficiary??
Mwalimu tahakabar 