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Colonialism's Impact on African Identity

This document provides context on the impact of colonialism in Africa. It discusses how European colonialism disrupted Africa's identity and imposed foreign systems and policies that still oppress the continent today. Colonialism enforced Eurocentrism through Christian missionaries who used religion to promote colonial agendas. Missionaries condemned African cultures and imposed a Western education system and lifestyle. While countries have gained independence, many argue the imposed colonial systems continue to shape Africa's political, social, cultural, religious and economic life in negative ways.

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Lawrence Mpeta
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50 views7 pages

Colonialism's Impact on African Identity

This document provides context on the impact of colonialism in Africa. It discusses how European colonialism disrupted Africa's identity and imposed foreign systems and policies that still oppress the continent today. Colonialism enforced Eurocentrism through Christian missionaries who used religion to promote colonial agendas. Missionaries condemned African cultures and imposed a Western education system and lifestyle. While countries have gained independence, many argue the imposed colonial systems continue to shape Africa's political, social, cultural, religious and economic life in negative ways.

Uploaded by

Lawrence Mpeta
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Research Background and Context

The African continent has relentlessly journeyed in its quest for absolute religious,

political, sociocultural, and economic freedom. This arduous expedition commenced a few

decades after the unforgettable Scramble for Africa that was launch between 1884-1885

during the Berlin Conference.1 It is not an overstatement to claim that the inception and

progression of colonialism brought pernicious and deleterious consequences that forever

contorted Africa's identity. Malesela Edward Montle aptly posits, “The colonialists

revolutionized the cultural backdrop of Africa and imposed European values upon African

natives. This affected the social, economic, and political identities in Africa. Today, the

imagination of identity-crisis in the African continent is appalling.”2

The European imperialists thrived on Africa’s identity crisis through the coercion of

Eurocentrism in all the colonies. Colonialism enforced intolerable, inhumane, and monstrous

conditions of life among Africans. For instance, they instigated the oppressive system of

Apartheid3 in South Africa. Through the abhorrent law of Apartheid, native South Africans

were segregated and deprived of their human rights. During mid-twentieth century, such

systems became so unbearable that all African colonies struggled for freedom against the

European nations that had subjugated them since the inception of the Scramble for Africa.

1
For more about the Berlin Conference and Scramble for Africa, see Mieke van der Linden, “The
Acquisition of Africa (1870–1914),” 2016. "Brill | Nijhoff" p.5-7 [Link] New
World Encyclopedia URL [Link]
85#The_General_Act
2
Montle, Malesela Edward. 2021. “The Genesis African-Identity-Crisis through Wole Soyinka’s Death
and King’s Horseman”. NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 12 (2):158-67. URL
[Link]
3
For more details about the South African Apartheid state, see Luiz, John M. "The Evolution and Fall
of the South African Apartheid State: A Political Economy Perspective." Ufahamu: A Journal of African
Studies 26, no. 2-3 (1998). p. [Link]
African’s vision during the struggle against colonialism, was to see Africa being

emancipated in all facets of life. However, Africa's post-colonial life is still not consistent

with what Africans envisioned during the struggle for freedom. This is because European

colonizers imposed deep-rooted systems4 and policies that would perennially oppress Africa.

Ahamad Faosiy Ogunbado writes:

The Berlin conference was Africa’s undoing in many ways than one. The colonial

powers superimposed their domain on the African continent. By the time

independence returned in 1950s, the realm had acquired a legacy of political

fragmentation that could neither be eliminated nor made to operate satisfactorily.5

While there is universal declaration that all African countries are independent, these political

policies are alive and well in Africa. Therefore, Africans wholeheartedly believe that their

political, sociocultural, religious, and economic lives are shaped by the imposed European

colonial systems.

The imperialists also imposed a Eurocentric education system as a perennial buttress

of imperialism against Africans. Dr. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, a Kenya prolific author averred,

“Colonial education has another aim: to produce a native elite which has absorbed the culture

of imperialism, and through who imperialism, in its neo-colonialism stages, can continue

looting and plundering the wealth of the country.”6 In the contemporary era, Africans suffer

4
Apartheid, Britain’s “Divide and Rule,” and France’s “Assimilation and Associations” are just a few
of the colonial systems that still oppress Africa today. For more details, see Ocheni, Stephen, and Basil C.
Nwankwo. "Analysis of colonialism and its impact in Africa." Cross-Cultural Communication 8, no. 3 (2012):
53 URL [Link] Liya Palagashvili African chiefs:comparative
governance under colonial rule. Public Choice 174, 277–300 (2018). URL [Link]
0499-3
5
Ogunbado, Ahamad Faosiy. “Impacts of Colonialism on Religions: An Experience of Southwestern
Nigeria.” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science 5 (2012): 51-57. URL [Link]
0565157
6
Wa Thiong'o, Ngugi. "Education for a national culture." Barrel of a Pen: Resistance to Repression in
Neo-Colonial Kenya. Trenton, NJ: Africa of the World P 100 (1983). p.29 [Link]
neocolonialism because of the consistent consumption of this colonial education which has

profoundly perverted their dignity and identity. It is therefore not incorrect to postulate that

this colonial education system in Africa is fully functional as it achieves its purpose.

The European colonialists were obsessed with imperialism that they also used

Christianity for the exploitation of Africa’s resources and the perversion of culture. Christian

missionaries partnered with their colonial governments for civilization by the enforcement of

the western education system in missionary schools. Fedelis Nkomazana writes:

“Missionary education, therefore, was firstly used as an agent of change. It

was to reconstruct African culture. Secondly it was used as a vehicle to import and

impose western values on Africans. To missionaries, western education represented

modernity and civilization. It was used to spread western social, cultural, and

economic value systems.7

European missionaries coerced Africans to embrace a Eurocentric lifestyle.8 Eventually,

missionaries’ coercion of Westernization brought internal cultural changes such as the

practice of “white wedding ceremony” to replace primordial indigenous wedding ceremonies.

In the modern Africa, a White Wedding ceremony is the most preeminent and widely

preferred. The African indigenous wedding ceremonies has great phased in Africa.

Certainly, European missionaries subtly used Christianity for the promotion of

colonialism. Nkomazana aptly asserts that “Although the task of missionaries was to

evangelize the people, Christianity was unnecessarily turned into an ideology which was used

to lay the ground for white domination. Religion was used to legitimize, sustain and even

7
Fidelis Nkomazana and Senzokuhle Doreen Setume. “Missionary Colonial Mentality and the Expansion of
Christianity in Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1800 to 1900.” Journal for the Study of Religion 29, no. 2 (2016): 30.
[Link]
8
For a few changes that European missionaries brought in Africa, see Emily Lyons,, and Chicoine
Luke. "The Long-Term Effects of Christian Missions on Family Formation in sub-Saharan Africa." (2019).
[Link]
Saharan+Africa&referrer=https%3A%2F%[Link]%2F
promote political oppression (Bourdillon 1960:269).”9 The Christianity that was imposed by

European missionaries, contorted almost all key facets of life in Africa. For instance,

missionaries of the London Missionary society used the Bible to colonize Batswana

politically, culturally and economically.10 Therefore, some European missionaries11

consequently advanced colonial agendas as they were preaching the gospel in Africa.

Western missionaries Eurocentrically interpreted the Bible for the suppression of

African cultures and the propagation of colonialism. Musa W Dube avers, “The Bible was

brought into contact with Latin American, African and Asian cultures in a setting where

power relations were not characterized by mutuality or equality…Christian missions

accompanied colonial expansion and participated with ease in the suppression of other

cultures.12 Dube adds that modern colonial (or civilizing) missions were characterized by

cultural collision, which often placed the Bible on the side of the colonizer’s cultures and

functioned as a tool for the subjugation of the other.13 Therefore, Christian missionaries

altered the African lifestyle by condemning and suppressing African cultures through the

biased interpretation of the Bible to lead-off Europeanization and colonialism.

The historiography of European missions in Africa reveals the pathetic attitudes,

actions and even derogatory remarks that missionaries made against Africans. For instance,

John Mackenzie and Robert Moffat are a few of the missionaries who participated in the

Christianization, civilization and colonization of Africa. Moffat asserted that African culture

was full of degradation, barbarism, ignorance and darkness. Mackenzie also affirmed that

Africans must be secluded from their home habits, customs and occupations because they
9
Nkomazana and Setume. 30
10
Nkomazana and Setume.40
11
For instance, missionaries from the London Missionary Society (David Livingstone, Charles
Mackenzie etc.) see, Our History, “The Missionaries Who Invaded Africa” Our History (Documentary about
Missionaries) Feb 15, 2022, accessed February 26, 2023 [Link]
12
Dube, Musa W. "Intercultural biblical interpretations." Svensk Missionstidskrift 98 (2010): 364-365.
[Link]
13
Ibid.365.
may imbibe that love of a life among their flocks and herds.14 It is pathetic that missionaries

could utter such reprehensible remarks against people whom God had send them to.

With this terrible attitude, missionaries enforced Christianity through various ways

such as churches, crusades and schools. The missionaries’ strategy was crucial to the spread

of European Christianity that even the post-colonial era bears witness to the impact that is

made by their approach. As of February 15, 2023, a statistics agency estimated that there are

about 658 million Christians in Sub-Sahara Africa, and that Among all countries in Africa,

Zambia has high percentage (95.5%) of Christians.15 The Christian religion is the most

influential in Africa. Certainly, European Christianity still affect Africa’s religious, political,

cultural and economic activities as did in the colonial era. Like the colonial education,

European Christianity is widely embraced in Africa.

Therefore, Christianity as taught by the missionaries inevitably becomes a crux in

Africa’s quest for absolute freedom in critical areas such as religious, cultural and political

issues. This is because it has shaped Africa to what it is today. The missionaries’ attitudes,

and actions such as the enforcement of colonial education, western civilization and the

promotion of European subjugation, raise crucial objections and allegations against

Christianity in Africa. Mastobane J. Manala writes, “Christianity led to the demise of the

African customs, which it viewed as pagan and evil; the religion also led to the

implementation of apartheid (to which it gave its theological support), and undermined the

leadership role of women. Finally, Christianity has bedeviled race relations in Africa

14
Nkomazana and Setume 38
15
Stastica, “African countries with the highest share of Christians as of 2023” [Link] accessed
February 25, 2023. [Link]
country/
generally.”16 Therefore, some African elites such as Joshua Maponga17 hold that Christianity

is just a system for the continuous colonization of Africa.

The missionaries’ participation in the colonization of Africa is deeply deplorable as it

questions the legitimacy of the true biblical Christianity. Just as it has been proven, the

historiography of European missions in Africa implicitly suggests that Christianity is a

system for the incessant suppression of Africans. Instead of condemning colonialism,

missionaries used Christianity to advance the imperialists agendas. Therefore, Eurocentric

Christianity has negatively affected the social, political, economic, and religious lives of

Africans.18

Based on the negative effects of Christianity in Africa, radical African elites such as Joshua

Maponga,19 hold that this religion is a scam against Africa. Therefore, Maponga advocates

for the or at decolonization hypothesis for Africa to attain her freedom and development in all

facets of life as other continents. Joshua Maponga is just an example of the spectrum of

Africans20 who hold such notions against Christianity especially during the 21st Century.

Christianity is under serious attacks in Africa because of its historical compliments of

colonialization of Africa when the tenets of Christianity were used to justify Eurocentrism in

Africa. Hence the critical objection: is Christianity a European system for the incessant

colonial subjugation of Africans?

16
Matsobane Manala J. "The impact of Christianity on sub-Saharan Africa." Studia Historiae
Ecclesiasticae 39, no. 2 (2013): 285-302. [Link]
04992013000200016
17
Joshua Maponga is a Zimbabwean theologian, philosopher, and a former Bishop of the Seventh Day
Adventist Church. For details about his criticism against European Christianity, see
[Link] [Link]
[Link]
18
For more, see Mastobane J. Manala [Link]
script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992013000200016
19
Joshua Maponga, for more about his decolonizing Christianity hypothesis, see
[Link] [Link]

20
For more criticisms against Christianity in Africa, see [Link]
and-the-harmful-effects Elijah Adjei Boakye [Link]
[Link]

Common questions

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Christianity in Africa served as a tool of colonial subjugation by aligning with imperial objectives, endorsing policies like apartheid and cultural assimilation. However, Christianity also became a platform for resistance, offering a framework for unity against oppression. Figures like Desmond Tutu used Christian ideals to advocate for rights and justice, illustrating its potential to empower socio-political movements against the colonial status quo despite its historical complicity .

Christian missionaries contributed to colonialism by acting as agents for European cultural domination, using religion to justify and implement colonial authority. They enforced Western education and values, disrupting and supplanting indigenous cultures and practices. This missionary activity laid the groundwork for continued European dominance, deeply embedding Eurocentric ideologies in African cultural, political, and religious life, affecting contemporary society's governance and cultural practices .

Missionaries from the London Missionary Society played a critical role in reshaping African social structures and governance by promoting European lifestyles and governance models. They positioned Christianity as a civilizing force, often undermining existing social and political systems. By doing so, they facilitated the assimilation of European hierarchical structures into local governance, gradually aligning traditional systems with colonial interests .

The imposition of Christianity impacted race relations by endorsing Eurocentrism and racial superiority, undermining African identities and leadership practices. Indigenous leadership roles were marginalized under colonial rule where missionary education and governance models favored European or Euro-trained leaders. These dynamics worsened racial divides and contributed to contemporary challenges in race relations and representation of indigenous leadership in African societies .

Apartheid evolved as a structured system of institutionalized racism in South Africa, legally enforcing racial segregation and disenfranchising the non-white population. It perpetuated a hierarchy favoring European descent, debilitating African socio-economic advancement, and suppressing African identity and freedom. It symbolized European imperialism's enduring grip, challenging post-colonial aspirations for equality and freedom across Africa .

European colonial education systems aimed to produce a native elite absorbed in the culture of imperialism, thereby facilitating a continued neo-colonial control. This education perverted African identity by prioritizing European values over indigenous ones, resulting in socio-political structures that disenfranchised traditional authority and communal governance .

The Eurocentric education system bequeathed an administrative and economic framework designed to benefit colonial interests, perpetuating economic policies aligning with foreign, rather than domestic, priorities. This has led to governance models inadequately adjusted to indigenous needs, fostering dependency on foreign ideologies and systems. The resulting economic models often privilege multinational entities over local development, reflecting colonial hierarchical legacies .

Christianity introduced by missionaries has historically been associated with cultural subjugation, disparaging African customs as pagan and endorsing colonial hegemony. This legacy persists as European Christianity shapes African religious, cultural, and political life, sometimes limiting the reinterpretation of indigenous identities and governance in a post-colonial context. Critics argue this religious influence echoes colonial control, undermining African autonomy in cultural reconstruction .

Missionary education significantly influenced family life and religious practices by promoting nuclear family structures aligned with Western values, altering traditional family and community-centric practices. It introduced Western religious practices, replacing indigenous systems with Eurocentric Christian ceremonies and norms. These changes perpetuated colonial ideologies and disrupted traditional cultural and religious fabric in sub-Saharan Africa .

The Berlin Conference superimposed colonial powers' domains over Africa, leading to political fragmentation that has lasted beyond independence. The arbitrary borders drawn during the conference created divides not aligned with indigenous political or ethnic lines, embedding a legacy of division and fragmentation that persists as a political challenge in contemporary Africa .

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