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The Royal African Society

Interpreting the Colonial Period in African HistoryAuthor(s): R. Hunt DavisSource: African Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 289 (Oct., 1973), pp. 383-400Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society

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INTERPRETING THE COLONIAL PERIOD INAFRICAN HISTORY

by R. HUNTDAVISUniversityof FloridaIN RECENTEARSmore or less standard nterpretationof the colonialperiodinAfricanhistoryhas developedin generalhistorical circles. Take, for instance,the view put forth by Gordon A. Craig in his textbook on modernEurope:'One of the keys to the understandingof the problemsof the new Africannations of the twentieth century is the briefness of the period which inter-vened between the end of their isolation from the modern world and theiradmission to statehood. As late as the 1800s, most of Africa was stilluncharted and free from alien penetration. Then, with a rush that is stillastonishing to recall, the white men arrived and within twenty years hadcarved all of Africa into dependencies of their home governments. Thetraumaticeffects of the impact of an advanced industrialcivilizationupon a

primitivetribal society are still havingrepercussions oday....'1Craig's interpretation s similar to what one finds in many general Europeanhistorytexts. Consequently, t is the only view that most historystudentseverget of the colonialperiod. But how sound is it ? Did a sudden confrontationwith the modern world traumatize Africans? Was the colonial period toobrief to complete the task of transformingAfrica from an era of 'primitivetribal societies' to the 'modern age'? The purpose of this paper, then, is toexaminethe problemsof how best to interpretthe period of Europeanrule inAfrica. As part of this process, it will analyse earlier and current historicalinterpretationsof the colonialperiod and then put forward,if not yet anotherinterpretation,at least a radical change of emphasis, derived from GeoffreyBarraclough'sAn Introductiono Contemporary istory.2The'unrewardingyrationsof barbarousribes'The Europeanview of Africa that developed congruently with the age ofimperialismand still continues in the popular mind, and to some extent inDr R. Hunt Davis, jr. is an assistant professor of history at the University of Florida.His main research interests are in the history of education and politics in South Africa.1. Gordon A. Craig, Europe since 1815 (3rd ed., New York, 1971), pp. 407-8.2. Geoffrey Barraclough, An Introduction to Contemporary History (Harmondsworth,1967).

383

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384 AFRICANAFFAIRSscholarlycircles,3 s that it has no past. Its history begins with the arrivalofEuropeans. This view originated with the ideology of an industrialized,nationalistic,and imperialistic ate nineteenth century Europethat 'sanctionedas natural and necessarya polarizationof the rulers and the ruled, the bearersand the receivers of culture.'4 The sociological basis of this ideology, it issuggested, consisted of two elements: idealistic sociology, which constructedsystems of logically interconnected ideal types, with assigned meanings thatmade themtimeless,for the purposeof interpretingempirical acts; andpseudo-Darwinism, which sought relations among empirical phenomena, assumed apolygeneticoriginfor the world'spopulationandacceptedthe notionof conquestand class conflict dominating political processes. The combinationof thesetwo concepts produceda belief in the existence in Africa of distinct Caucasoidand Negroid types, each with its own attributes, to which absolute (andvariously ranked)values could be assigned.The combination of idealistic sociology and pseudo-Darwinism clearlyunderlies one of the earliestscholarlyeffortsat placing colonial rule in Africain a historicalperspective, that is, Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston'sA Historyof theColonization fAfricabyAlien Races. Johnston,one of the leadingBritishempire-builders,said of Africans that:

'The Negro, more than any otherhumantype, has been markedout by hismental and physical characteristicsas the servant of other races .... in aprimitive state [he] is a born slave. He is possessed of great physicalstrength, docility, cheerfulnessof disposition, a short memory for sorrowsand cruelties, and an easily arousedgratitudefor kindness and just dealing.He does not suffer from home-sickness to the over-bearing extent thatafflictsother peoples torn from their homes, and, providedhe is well fed, heis easily made happy. Above all, he can toil hard under the hot sun and inthe unhealthyclimates of the torrid zone. He has little or no race-fellow-ship-that is to say, he has no sympathyfor other negroes; he recognizes,follows, and imitates his master independentlyof any race affinities .. .'5Obviously born slaves were incapable of creating anything that could bedeemed worthy of historical study. Thus, for Johnston the history of thecontinent consisted of the movement of alien races into Africa over some four

3. See, for example Hugh Trevor-Roper's much-quoted statement that 'Perhaps inthe future, there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none, orvery little: there is only the history of the Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness...And darkness is not a subject for history.' 'The Rise of Christian Europe', The Listener,70, 1809 (Nov. 28, 1963), p. 871. The phrase used in this section's sub-title also comesfrom this article. For discussions of the exclusion of African history from the purview ofthe professional historian prior to 1948, see J. D. Fage, 'Introduction', and Ivor Wilks,'African Historiographical Traditions, Old and New', in Africa Discovers Her Past,edited by J. D. Fage (London, 1970), pp. 1-17.4. Wyatt Macgaffey, 'Concepts of Race in the Historiography of Northeast Africa',Journal of African History, 7, 1 (1966), pp. 1-2.5. H. H. Johnston, A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races (Cambridge,1899; 2nd ed., 1913), pp. 151-2.

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COLONIALPERIODIN AFRICANHISTORY 385millenia for purposes of settlement, agricultureand commerce.6 These alienswerephysicallyandmentally superiorto the indigenouspopulation. The greatinflow of Europeansinto the continent beginning in 1881, however, added anew dimensionand broughtto a completionthe long processof the invasion ofAfricaby alien races. For, possessedof a 'beauty of facial features and origin-ality of invention in thought and deed' that made them superiorto all othermankind,the Europeanswere embarkedon building a new Africain which theeventual outcome would be 'a compromise-a dark-skinnedrace with a whiteman's features and a white man's brain'.7The result of Johnston'swork and that of later scholarssuch as the ethno-logist C. G. Seligmanswaso create a climateof opinion thatled mostWesternersto think that everything of value in Africa originatedoutside the continent,usually from supposed Caucasoid sources. In short, there could be littledoubt thatEuropehadbrought historyto Africa. The only debatewas whetheror not Africa benefited from European rule, but it was a debate in whollyEurocentricterms-was Europeanrule beneficialor harmful in terms of whatEuropeansdid. Holdersof the positiveviewpointwould be in heartyagreementwith the remarksof Lord Leverhulme,chairmanof Lever Brothers,made at adinner held by the Liverpool Chamberof Commerce n 1924:

'I am certain that the West African races have to be treatedvery much asone would treat children when they are immature and underdeveloped.We have excellent materials. I don't know better materialsanywhere forlabour in the tropicsthan the nativesof West Africa but they are not organ-ized .... Now the organizing ability is the particular trait and characteristicof the white man. . . . I say this with my little experience, that the Africannative will be happier, producethe best, and live under the largerconditionsof prosperitywhen his labour is directed and organizedby his white brotherwho has all these million years'start ahead of him.'9Europeansthus were takingup the white man's burden and bringingprogressto Africa.Those Europeanswho opposed imperialismdid so loudly and often used theexploitationof Africans as one of their arguments against colonial rule. Buthere too the debate was Eurocentric n its focus. For example, the prominentBritishsocialist,LeonardWoolf, attackedcolonialismon the groundsthat only asmall number of capitalistsbenefited from it. For the nations of Europe and6. Ibid., p. 442.7. Ibid, pp. 450-1.8. C. G. Seligman, Races of Africa (London, 1930; 4th ed., 1966). 'The history ofAfrica south of the Sahara', wrote Seligman, 'is no more than the story of the permeationthrough the ages . . of the [indigenous population] by Hamitic blood and culture'(p. 8), and the Hamites were 'Europeans' (p. 61). For a criticism of Seligman and otherproponents of the Hamitic hypothesis, see Macgaffey, 'Concepts of Race' and Edith R.Sanders, 'The Hamitic Hypothesis, its Origins and Function in Time Perspective',Journal of African History, 10, 4 (1969), pp. 521-32.9. West Africa, 26 July 1924, quoted in Michael Crowder, A Short History of Nigeria(revised ed.; New York, 1966), p. 264.

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386 AFRICANAFFAIRStheircitizens,economic mperialismwasa failure,and in Africacolonialadminis-trations dedicated to serving the needs of European capital lost sight of thewelfare of the Africanpeople. Yet Woolf's fundamentalview of Africans wasalmost identical with that of Leverhulme. He too consideredAfricans to be'savages' who belonged to 'non-adult races' and possessed a 'psychology...[which] has been only the passive agent in the making of... [their] life andhistory; the active agent has been the beliefs and desires of Europeans.'10Nearly every white person, in short, whether pro-colonial or anti-colonial,possesseda stereotypedview of Africa that perceivedthe continent in terms ofacephalous societies where people mainly lived in small villages and lackedadministrativeand judicial institutions."1 Such views turned the colonial erainto what J. F. Ade Ajayi has termed 'a mythical situation more suitable forlegend than for history'.12This outlookremaineddominantuntil the second world war. It is true thatduringthe inter-warperiod there developeda school of social anthropology nBritainwhichradicallyquestioned he earlierassumptionsof absolutesuperiorityand inferiority as between European and 'primitive' societies. And duringthis period some importantanthropological esearchwas carriedout on Africanpeoples. But until the 1940s the general basis of this school remainedun-historical and even anti-historical.Currenthistoriographicaliewsof thecolonialperiodDuring the heyday of colonialism most western historians, if they thoughtabout Africa at all, ignored the contemporaryanthropologicalresearch, andwere content with a mythical approach o the colonialera;but the secondworldwar, the emergence of strong nationalistmovements aimed at overthrowingrather than reformingthe colonialsituation,and the processof decolonization,all combined to invalidate this approach. Historiansstarted to become awareof Africa,and the earlierassumption hat Africapossessedno historyof its ownbegan to seem rather silly. Furthermorein the same way that imperialismhad brought forth a historiographyof its own, so too the terminationof thecolonial period createda need for historicalexplanation. The end of colonialrule meant that Africanswere to govern themselves. This in turn led Africanand Afrophilehistorians o thinkit necessary o demonstrate hat Africanswerecapableof governing states.13 The establishmentof Africanuniversitieswith10. Leonard Woolf, Empire and Commerce in Africa: a study in economic imperialism(London, 1920; reprinted, New York, 1968). See extracts from pp. 316, 328-31, 333-6,352-8 in Problems in the History of Colonial Africa, 1860-1960, ed. by Robert O. Collins(Engelwood Cliffs, N.J., 1970), pp. 285-95.11. Michael Crowder, West Africa Under Colonial Rule (Evanston, 1968), p. 13.12. J. F. Ade Ajayi, 'The Continuity of African Institutions Under Colonialism', inEmerging Themes of African History: proceedings of the International Congress of AfricanHistorians held at Dar es Salaam, 1965, ed. by T. O. Ranger (London, 1968), p. 189.13. Christopher Wrigley, 'Historicism in Africa', African Affairs, 70, 279 (April, 1971),p. 118. Wrigley adds that as a result, such historians have seen 'state-formation as thedominant and almost the only significant theme of earlier history', an approach that helabels historicism.

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COLONIALPERIODIN AFRICANHISTORY 387their owndepartmentsf history urthermplieda needto shift the focalpointof African istoryrom hestudyofEuropeanctivitieso the historicalevelop-mentof Africanocietytself.14 Finally,ndependent fricantatesareseekingto discover rom he African ast hatwhich s relevanto theprocess fnation-building.15Allof this,whencomb nedwithagrowing warenessf the ethno-centricbias of muchof historicalcholarship,as led historianso look morecritically tthe African ast, ncludinghe colonialperiod.Threedivergentnterpretationsf the colonialperiodhaveemergedrom hebodyof recentworks n African istory, llrevolvingroundhecentral uestionofwhether heprecolonialrthecolonialperiodwas he morecrucialn shapingindependentAfrica. The earliest iew,and one thatis still important,rguesthat hecolonial eriod reated decisive reakwiththeAfricanast.16 Anothergroupof historians averespondedo thispositionby stating hat the colonialperiodmust be set in the perspective f Africanhistoryas a wholeand thatthe continuitywith the pastis as important s change. The thirdposition sthat of the 'radicalpessimists',who aremoreconcernedwith theaspectof theproblems hat relates o post-colonialAfrica. They arguethat the colonialpowersdevelopedAfrican a manner hat has left the greater artof the con-tinent n a stateof dependencen the formermother ountrieswhichcanonlybe changedby world-widerevolution.1 The radicalpessimists hus sharewith the firstgroupof historians belief that the colonialperiod s the mostimportantn Africanhistory,but they approachhis positionfrom such adifferent ngle hattheyconstitute third school'.Theconcept f thecolonial eriod srepresentingdecisive reakwithearliererasof Africanhistory eststo a considerablextenton the studyof economichistory. In this connection, ackGoodyhas made a significantontributionina recentpaperhatcompareshe tradeandmarkets,hesystems fproduction,andthe militaryorganizationsf pre-colonialAfricaandmedievalEurope.s114. See for example, J. D. Fage, 'Continuity and Change in the Writing of WestAfrican History', African Affairs, 70, 280 (July, 1971), pp. 236-51. Fage views 1948 asthe crucial date in this shift and cites K. O. Dike's Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta,1830-85 (Oxford, 1956), as 'the first fruit of the new university-based approach to thehistory of Africa'.15. See J. F. Ade Ajayi, 'The Place of African History and Culture in the Process ofNation-Building in Africa South of the Sahara',Journal of Negro Education, 30, 3 (Summer,1961), pp. 206-13. An informative debate over the existence of a nation-building schoolof Tanzanian historiography appears in a series of three articles in African Affairs:Donald Denoon and Adam Kuper, 'Nationalist Historians in Search of a Nation: the"New Historiography" in Dar es Salaam', 69, 277 (Oct., 1970), pp. 329-47; T. O.Ranger, 'An Answer', 70, 278 (Jan., 1971) pp. 50-61; Denoon and Kuper, 'A Rejoinder',70, 280 (July, 1971), pp. 287-8.16. For instance, the American Historical Association has promoted this viewpoint inPhilip D. Curtin, African History, Service Center for Teachers of History, PublicationNumber 56 (Washington, D.C., 1964).17. The term 'radical pessimist' comes from T. O. Ranger, 'Introduction', in Ranger,Emerging Themes, p. xxi. Also, see Gerald L. Caplan, 'Review of A History of Eastand Central Africa to the Late Nineteenth Century, by Basil Davidson, Origins of Rhodesia,by Stanlake Samkange, and Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960, Vol. I, The History andPolitics of Colonialism, 1870-1914, ed. by L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan', Africa Report,15, 2 (Feb., 1970), pp. 36-9.18. For note 18, see next page.

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388 AFRICANAFFAIRSHe concludes that patterns of trade were similar as were, to a lesser extent,military organizations,but that there was a great gap between the agriculturaltechnologies of medieval Eurasiaand Africa. Since social systems are closelytied to economic capacities, 'Africa [which made little use of even elementarymachines] was unable to match the developments in productivity and skill,stratification and specialization, that marked the agrariansocieties of earlymedieval Europe'. By extension, the colonial impact of an industrializedEurope on an Africa with a rudimentarytechnology was to have profoundconsequencesfor all spheresof humanactivity.While Goody takes a neutral stance on the reasons for the colonial periodbeing decisive, many observers take either a Eurocentric or an Afrocentricapproachto the problem. The more conventionalEurocentristsusually takethe approach hat the colonialperiod was both necessaryand, on balance,goodfor Africa. Roland Oliver stated the mattersuccinctly: 'For the integrationofEast Africawith the generalprogressof mankind n the worldoutside, a drasticsimplificationof the old political diversitywasaninescapablenecessity. It was aproblem which, judging by historical precedent, only a period of colonialtutelage could solve.'19 Two historians who take an even more adamantviewof the supposed necessity of the colonial period and the benefit that Africaderived from it are L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan. Their argumentfor thepositive natureof colonialrule runs as follows:

'It is difficultto assess the Europeans' mperialrecord as a whole. Con-temporarydiscussion on the subject indeed bears some resemblanceto theinterminabledebatesconcerningthe war-guiltquestionafter the First WorldWar.... We do not share the widely-held assumption that equatescolonialismwith exploitation. Neither do we believe that profitsnecessarilyimply exploitation ..We thus take a more favourableview of white . . entrepreneurship..We should also be more inclined than some ... to stress the immigrants'technical and technological contributions .... We also argue that Europeanimmigration o Africa, while occasioningall mannerof new social problems,representedat the same time a much-needed transfer of modernskills. Weaccordingly nterpretEuropean mperialism n Africa as an engine of culturaltransfusionas well as of politicaldomination. We thus regard he Europeanera as most decisive for the future of Africa.We likewise look favourablyon many of the Europeans'politicalachieve-ments .... In our own view, for instance, the pacification and administra-tive unificationof a huge territorysuch as Nigeria-a country never pre-viously united under the same flag-was in itself a major achievement.18. Jack Goody, 'Economy and Feudalism in Africa', EconomicHistory Review, SecondSeries, 22, 3 (Dec., 1969) pp. 393-405.19. Roland Oliver, 'Epilogue', in History of East Africa, Vol. I, edited by RolandOliver and Gervase Mathew (Oxford, 1963), p. 456.

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COLONIALPERIODIN AFRICANHISTORY 389Imperialism,accordingto our interpretation,acted as a means of culturaltransformation. Among other things, the whites brought to Africamodernforms of education,medicalfacilitiesand a host of economictechniques..... '20In contrast to this version of the Eurocentricview, with its emphasison the

positivecontributionof colonialism, he Afrocentric nterpretation f the decisivenatureof the colonialperiod stressesthe Africanr61le. In some instancesthishas produceda view of the colonialperiodas being completelydisruptiveof thefabric of African life and thereforetotally negative in its effect. It is a viewcharacterizedby novelists and politicians as much as by historians. Forexample, Chinua Achebe's novel, ThingsFall Apart,21describesa functioningandviable societythat disintegrates n the face of white missionaryandadminis-trative intrusion. While scholarssuch as Michael Crowderhave argued thatcolonialrule did not much affectordinaryAfricans,22Achebe, throughhis heroOkonkwo, nsiststhatit affectedAfricansocietyand cultureto its core. Supportfor Achebe's view comes fromthe politicalscientistAbiolaIrele, who has statedthat 'the establishmentof colonial rule in Africa brought with it a drastic re-ordering of African societies and human relations' and 'created in varyingmeasure all over Africa a state of cultural fluctuation.' This in turn ledAfricansin a search for new values that producedpopularmovementssuch asreligious independencyand nigritude.23 Some Africanpolitical leaders,amongthem Leopold Sedar Senghor and Julius Nyerere, have also accepted theconcept that the colonial period separatedAfrica from its past. They thenargue that the process of nation-buildingnecessitatesrecapturingthat past.24For them, the era of Europeanrule thus emergesas an iron age that has fallenbetween two golden ages.25Afrocentric views of the colonial period that regard it as decisive do notnecessarily imply that it was totally destructive in its impact and that thereexists a need to recapturethe African past in order to build a new society.Rather,the approachcan be one that emphasizes,as in fact Irele does, African20. L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan, 'Introduction', in The History and Politics ofColonialism, 1870-1914, edited by L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan, in Vol. I of Colonialismin Africa, 1870-1960, edited by L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan (5 vols; Cambridge,1969-) pp. 22-3. Also see their Burden of Empire: an appraisal of western colonialismin Africa South of the Sahara (New York, 1967).21. Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (London, 1962).22. Crowder, West Africa, passim.23. Abiola Irele, 'Ngritude or Black Cultural Nationalism', Journal of Modern AfricanStudies, 3, 3, (1965), pp. 322-5.24. For Senghor, see his Nationhood and the African Road to Socialism, trans. by MercerCook (Paris, 1962), especially pp. 99-108. He argues that to build a new nation it isnecessary to return to Negro-African cultural roots. The theme of recapturing theAfrican past, with its socialism, runs through much of Nyerere's Freedom and Socialism,Uhuru na Ujamaa: a selectionfrom writings and speeches1965-1967 (Dar es Salaam, 1968).'Education for Self-Reliance', pp. 267-90, for example, argues for the need of reinstitutingeducation which has the proper purpose of preparing the young to live in and serve theirsociety.25. R. Cornevin, 'The Problems and Character of African History', in Ranger, EmergingThemes, p. 76. Cornevin attributes this description of the colonial period to RobertDelavignette.

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390 AFRICANFFAIRSinitiative in societies that have been decisivelyalteredby Europeancolonialismand that have become part of a world economywith a materialand social basethat differs fundamentallyfrom that of the precolonialperiod as a result of'the new division of labor, the new modes of production and the system ofdistribution of material goods and political power'.26 Among historians, aleading proponentof this position is A. Adu Boahen. He arguesthat

'by its disruptionof the existing politicalorganizationand its creationof thepresent independentstates, by its generationof the new classes of Africans,by its introduction of cash-economyand above all by its spreadof educationand the Westernway of life, colonialism has launchedAfrica on a courseofdevelopmentthat is fundamentallydifferentfrom its earlierpatterns.27The legacy of colonialism has both its positive and negative aspects, many ofwhich will have a permanenteffect, but Africa's future will depend largelyonwhat Africans do with this legacy.The contrast between Boahen's Afrocentricapproachand the Eurocentricapproach described above is well illustrated by his view of the process ofdecolonization. Noting that some scholarsstatethat events in the metropolitancountries and the United Nations precipitated the terminal assault on thecolonial systemthat began in the late 1940s, Boahenarguedinstead that it wasthe emergence of political parties in colonial Africa, with their wide-rangingactivities,that initiatedthe processof decolonization. Furthermore, indepen-dence was not handed to most African countries on a golden platter; it wasfought for. Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Banda, Kaundabecame detaineesor prisongraduates before they became Prime Ministers or Presidents.'28 In short,the initiative for decolonization ay with Africans and not with others. Gannand Duignan's reply to Boahenis that the second world war, the pressureof aso-called conscience vote on the home governments,the lack of a concertedcolonial policy in Africa, and the failure of the colonial powers to formulatelong-term plans should receive more emphasisthan Africanpolitical parties.29A counter-argument n the Afrocentricside has emerged n responseto thosewho have viewed the colonial period as the most decisive one in determiningthe shape of modern Africa, whether from an Afrocentric or a Eurocentricstandpoint. It emphasizesthat the colonialperiod must be set in the perspec-tive of African history as a whole. A prominent exponent of this positionis J. F. Ade Ajayi, who has criticized those who study the European impactand the Africanresponse to colonialism without any reference to the internal26. Archie Mafeje, 'The Ideology of "Tribalism",' Journal of Modern African Studies,9, 2 (1971), p. 258.27. A. Adu Boahen, 'The Colonial Era: conquest to independence', in The History andPolitics of Colonialism, 1914-1960, edited by L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan, Vol. II ofColonialism in Afrzca, pp. 523-4.28. Ibid, pp. 516-9.29. L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan, 'Epilogue' in Gann and Duignan, Colonialism,1914-1960, p. 527.

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COLONIAL PERIOD IN AFRICAN HISTORY 391history of Africa and its peoples. The correct historical context for a fullassessmentof the colonialperiod 'is not the historyof the colonizationof Africaor the historyof Africanreactionsto Europeancolonization,but Africanhistoryas such.'30 Ajayi's position is very much in agreement with that of BasilDavidson, who has asserted:

'African development has run in an unbrokenline from its most distantoriginsuntil the present. The Africans are the childrenof their own past injust the same sense as all other majorgroupingsof humankind,so that eventhose intrusions or interruptionswhich have seemed most traumatic andsignificantof change, such as the colonialperiod, were in truth no more thanepisodes or stagesin a long continuityof growth.'31The colonial factor, writes Ajayi, did not simply assume dominance over allothers that had previously affected Africanhistory, among which he includedecology, economic factors unrelatedto the tradewith Europe,qualityof leader-ship, and political problems and opportunities at different periods. Theseelements continued to be presentand furthermoredid not simply become sub-ordinate to the Europeanfactor in African developmentsafter the arrivalofwhites.32 Ajayi thus argues for a basic culturalcontinuity in Africanhistory.

Changeof course is the essence of history, and Africans, in common with therest of mankind,have had to adaptthemselvesand their institutionsto change.Historians of the colonial period, therefore, should not be concerned withwhetheror not Africaninstitutions survivedor were disruptedby colonialrule,for that question is outdated. They should focus instead on the mannerandmethodsof Africanadaptation o the changerepresentedby the colonialperiod.33It is evident that Ajayi has the same Afrocentricapproachas Boahen, but thetwo arrive at differentinterpretationsof the importanceof the colonialperiod.In addition, it might be noted that the debate between those who argue forcontinuity and those who argue for disruption parallels the debate between30. J. F. Ade Ajayi, 'Colonialism: an episode in African history', in Gann and Duignan,Colonialism, 1870-1914, p. 499.31. Basil Davidson, A History of East and Central Africa to the Late Nineteenth Century(New York, 1969), p. 3. Elsewhere, however, Davidson has written that although thecolonial period was little more than a brief episode when 'viewed across the skylines ofhistory', nevertheless 'the skylines of history are distant, and to Africans those fifty orsixty years of foreign domination have been tremendous and traumatic. . . . the impact ofthose years was always massive. . . . [and] left Africa with everything to build or rebuild.Many fragments of the "old society" remained. But all too clearly they could never beput together again'. Which Way Africa?: the search for a new society (3rd edition;Harmondsworth, 1971), p. 16.32. Ajayi, 'Colonialism', p. 501.33. Ajayi, 'Continuity of African Institutions', p. 192. This article parallels the onein Gann and Duignan. For an anthropological view of the cultural unity and continuityof black Africa, see Jacques Maquet, Civilizations of Black Africa (New York, 1972)and Africanity: the cultural unity of Black Africa (New York, 1972). A political argumentfor cultural continuity comes from Amilcar Cabral, 'Identity and Dignity in Struggle',Southern Africa, 5, 9 (Nov., 1972), pp. 4-8.

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392 AFRICANAFFAIRSthose who favoura survivalistview and those who favoura catastrophic nter-pretationof Afro-Americanhistory.34Those who are making a case for continuity do not deny the far-reachingchanges that occurredduring the colonial era. Ajayi, for instance, notes thesignificanceof the loss of sovereignty,the introductionof Christianity,westerneducation,and westernsocial, religious,and politicalideas,and the suppressionof African practices that were judged incompatiblewith European Christiantraditions. To repeat, however, such developments representedonly a newhistoricalfactor, for the colonialperiodwas but 'one episode in the continuousflow of Africanhistory'.35 Overagainstthose who stressthe progressivenatureof Europeanrule, Ajayi further maintains that in many respects colonialismtendedto be a conservative orce that actedas a brakeon the processof historicalchange. Since the overridinginterest of colonial administrationwas stabilityand not reform,there tended in many areasto be less changethan in the nine-teenth-centuryera of the radicalMuslim and Christianreformers.36 MichaelCrowderhas made the essentially conservativenature of colonialism a majorpremise in his detailed study of WestAfrica under ColonialRule. The basictheses underlyinghis analysisare the brevityof colonialrule and the smallnessof its impact on the peoples of West Africa. He then proceedsto argue thatAfricans did not need the stimulusof colonialoccupationto become integratedinto the modern world. Noting Henri Brunschwig'scontention that 'Africacontainedthe seeds of its own modernisation,'Crowderclaimsthat 'to a largeextent the administrativesystem [of the colonial period] retarded ratherthanspeeded up . . . [Africa'sintegrationinto the modern world] and that it wasAfrican reaction to colonial rule more than anything else that achieved it.'Majoreffortsby the colonial powers at modernizationdid not take place untilafter the second world war, and then only involuntarilydue to pressurefromAfricancritics.37 Crowderand Ajayi thus differmarkedlywith Oliver, Gann,and Duignan over the issue of the Europeancontributionto Africanprogresstowardmodernityduringthe colonialperiod.

However, just as in the earlierpart of this century the originalEurocentricassumptionof the white impact on Africa had its critics-such as Woolf-aswell as its apologists,so therehas emergeda morerecentinterpretationwhich isboth Eurocentric and highly critical. The major adversariesof those whoemphasize 'African activity, Africanadaptation,Africanchoice, [and] Africaninitiative' are today likely increasinglyto be, in the words of T. O. Ranger,31not 'the discredited colonial school' but the 'radical pessimists'. He noteshow these, havingbecome disillusionedwith the apparent nabilityof indepen-dentAfricato developitself, to achieveunity, or to free the still white-dominated34. For a discussion of this debate, see Orlando Patterson, 'Rethinking Black History',Africa Report, 17, 9 (Nov.-Dec. 1972), pp. 28-31.35. Ajayi, 'Continuity of African Institutions', pp. 194-6; 'Colonialism', pp. 502-3, 506.36. Ajayi, 'Colonialism', p. 505.37. Crowder, West Africa, pp. 7-9.38. For note 38, see next page.

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COLONIALPERIODIN AFRICANHISTORY 393territories in the south, have turned to a Fanonesque analysis of Africannationalism. The radicalpessimistshave posed what to Rangerseems 'to havebecome the fundamental debate both of contemporaryAfricanpolitics and ofmuch of Africanhistoriography. Can Africahelp itself or is it powerlessuntilthe whole pattern of the world has been changed by revolution?' Radicalpessimistsfind themselvesdoubtingthe long-termabilityof Africanpeoples toshape their own destinies. Under such an approach, Africans once againbecome the objects rather than the subjectsof history, and the perspectiveonthe colonial period is thus essentially a Eurocentricone. In large measure,therefore, the radical pessimists have taken up the anti-colonialargumentsofthe period before the second world war, for, while given an impetus by recentevents, the underlyingpremises of their position are generallyMarxistones.39The core of radicalpessimismis economic. Its orientation s Third Worldratherthan just African. Simply put, the argumentruns somewhatas follows.The poorcountriesof the world,which wereuntil recentlypartof the Europeancolonialsystem,havesupposedlybecomeindependent. In realterms, however,they arenot, for they are incapableof pursuingan independentcourse of actionowing to their remaining economically subordinateto the capitalist system.The realityof the Third Worldis as an appendageof the West. It is in a stateof arrestedeconomicdevelopment hat in turn has producedconstantturmoil.40By definition, this is neo-colonialism, which, to quote Oginga Odinga, is 'notyet Uhuru'.41 Accordingto Andre Gunder Frank, who bases his analysisonLatin America, neo-colonialism, or rather underdevelopment, s the productof the colonial structure of world capitalistdevelopment. What the colonialsituation amounted o, then, was the developmentof underdevelopment, or it isan integral part of the same historical process that generated capitalism.42Their analysis leads the radical pessimists to conclude that only world-wide revolution which sweeps away the capitalist system can end neo-colonialism.A radicalpessimist analysis of Africa's current world position appearsin arecent articleby SamirAmin.43 He sets forth four periods in Africanhistory:38. Ranger, 'Introduction', Emerging Themes, p. xxi.39. See, for instance, the 'Introduction' in Imperialism and Underdevelopment:a reader,edited by Robert I. Rhodes (London, 1970), p. xi, which states that 'the central theme ofthis volume is the assertion that the colonial experience is of crucial significance in theanalysis of underdevelopment. Colonialism... is studied as the historical processwhich created underdevelopment. The underdeveloped country is seen as a colonialsociety whose structure has been determined by hundreds of years of European and, morerecently, United States domination.' Not all recent Marxist writing on imperialism,however, takes a radical pessimist or Third World position. For opposition to such aninterpretation, see Ernest Mandel, 'The Laws of Uneven Development', New LeftReview, 59 (Jan.-Feb., 1970), pp. 19-38 and Bob Rowthorn, 'Imperialism in theSeventies-Unity or Rivalry ?', New Left Review, 69 (Sept.-Oct., 1971), pp. 31-54.40. Sean Gervasi, 'Western Strategy in Southern Africa', Southern Africa, 5, 8 (Oct.,1972), p. 5.41. Oginga Odinga, Not Yet Uhuru: an autobiography(New York, 1967). See especiallyhis last chapter, 'Obstacles to Uhuru', pp. 253-315.42. For note 42, see next page.43. For note 43, see next page.

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394 AFRICANAFFAIRSthe pre-mercantilistperiod (earliest days to seventeenth century); the mer-cantilistperiod(seventeenthcenturyto 1800); integration nto the full capitalistsystem (1800 to 1880-90); colonization (1880-90 to the present). The con-tinent's dependence on the capitalist world began with mercantilism whenreduction to the function of providing slave labour for Americanplantationsstarted to shape Africa according to foreign needs and thus cost Africa itsautonomy. The colonialperiod, however, developed currentAfricandepend-ence with tenfold vigour. The colonialsystem sought to have Africaproduceexports on the best possible terms for the metropole. In moving toward thisposition it organizedAfrica into the three macro-regionswhich constitute thepresent pattern of the continent: Africa of the colonial trade economy (WestAfrica and the Sudan); Africa of the concession-owningcompanies(the CongoRiver basin); Africa of the labour reserves (eastern and southern Africa).Everywheretraditionalsociety disintegrated n the face of the demands of thecapitalist system, leaving in its place not a society that was moving towardmodernitybut rather a dependent society that 'was complete, peripheral,andhence at a dead end. It consequentlyretainedcertain "traditional" appear-ances which constituted ts only means of survival.'44More widely known and more popularized at least in Americancircles)thanthe economicargumentof radicalpessimism s the psychologicalone. Colonial-ism involvedthe mentalas well as the politicaland economicsubjugationof thecolonized, a subjugation hat did not end with the independencemovementsofthe late 1950s andearly 1960s.45 All too frequentlya blackbourgeoisiewith anoutlook similar to that of the former colonial mastersreplacedthe Europeanrulers, leavingthe masses as economicallyoppressedas ever. Until the colonialpeoples are free of their mental imprisonment,which includes a sense both of42. Andre Gunder Frank, Latin America: underdevelopmentor revolution (New York,1969), pp. x, 3-17. Frank has played a central role in developing contemporary Marxisttheory on the economic relations of imperialism, but his ideas are now coming undercriticism from within Marxist circles. Two articles by Ernesto Laclau have been impor-tant in this regard. In 'Argentina-Imperialist Strategy and the May Crisis', New LeftReview, 62 (July-Aug., 1970), pp. 3-21, he challenges Frank's assumption that imperialismmeans nothing but backwardness, famine, and misery throughout the underdevelopedworld. Argentina provides an example of industrial development in a dependent country.More recently, in 'Feudalism and Capitalism in Latin America', New Left Review, 67(May-June, 1971), pp. 19-38, Laclau argues that Frank defines feudalism and capitalismprimarily in terms of the process of exchange, thereby ignoring fundamental Marxisttheory, 'which maintains that feudalism and capitalism are, above all, modes of pro-duction' (p. 20).43. Samir Amin, 'Underdevelopment and Dependence in Black Africa: its origins andcontemporary forms', Journal of Modern African Studies, 10, 4 (1972), pp. 503-24. Fora fuller and more detailed historical analysis of Africa from his viewpoint, see WalterRodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (London, 1972). Rodney's major historicalperiods are down to the fifteenth century, 1500-1885, and 1885-1960, thus differing some-what from Amin's periodization.44. Ibid, pp. 511, 506, 520.45. The classic exposition of the psychology of the colonial relationship is that ofO. Mannoni, Psychologie de la Colonisation (Paris, 1950), translated by Pamela Poweslandinto English as Prospero and Caliban (London, 1956). Mannoni's study was of coursewritten before the era of independence, and did not pursue the question of continuedpost-colonial psychological dependence.

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COLONIALPERIODIN AFRICANHISTORY 395inferiorityand of alienation, it will be impossible for them to throw off theeconomic shacklesof neo-colonialism. The most prominent exponent of thepsychological argumentin its political dimension is, of course, Frantz Fanon.As Elie Kedouriehas noted, Fanon regardedcolonialismas having spawnedadiabolicaland inhuman society, and only with its total eradicationcould menbe led to sanity and happiness. True decolonizationneeded violence. Fanoncameto view violenceasa cleansing orcethroughwhichthe colonizedman couldfind genuine freedom and escape the current situation of false decolonizationin which the indigenous bourgeoisie governed their countries through agree-ments reachedwith the metropolitanpowers.46 Thus, from both the economicand the psychological perspective, the focal point of African historiographyfor the radicalpessimistsshould be not African initiative but instead the morecrucialprocesswhich led Africanpatternsof development o becomedependentupon alien interests.47GeoffreyBarraclough'sContemporary istory'and thecolonialperiodThe debate over the importanceof the colonialperiod in Africanhistory isdependentin largepart on the views of colonialismheld by the variouspartici-pants. On the one hand there are the historicalapologistsfor Europeanrulewho take a Eurocentricview of the colonialperiod. On the other hand thereare the opponents of colonialismwho attack it from either an Afrocentricor aradicalpessimist position. A new perspective s perhapsneeded on the colonialperiod, one that focuses on the essentials of the process of change in Africasince the late nineteenth century but at the same time avoids interpretationsthat revolve around a pro-colonial anti-colonial debate. In attempting todevelop such a perspective, I wish first to examine the ideas of GeofferyBarracloughand others concerning historical analysis of the recent past andthen to apply these ideas to an interpretationof the colonial period in Africanhistory.Geoffery Barraclough ntroduces his Introduction o ContemporaryHistoryby stating that 'we live today in a world different,in almost all its basic pre-conditions, from the world in which Bismarck ived and died.' He then pro-ceeds to examinehow these changeshave occurredand to analysethe formativeinfluencesand qualitativedifferenceswhichdistinguish he contemporaryworld.In order to do this he sees the need for a new frameworkand new terms ofreference that will reflect the underlying structuralchangeswhich have takenplace since Bismarck'sday.48 A new periodof history-in short,contemporaryhistory-has come into existence, separated by a real gulf from the period of'modern' history. To understand and justify the study of contemporary46. Elie Kedourie, ed., Nationalism in Asia and Africa (New York, 1970), pp. 139-42;Martin Staniland, 'Frantz Fanon and the African Political Class', African Affairs, 68,270 (Jan., 1969), pp. 4-25. Kedourie also presents on pp. 488-539 an essay by Fanonon 'Concerning Violence', taken from his The Damned (Paris, 1963), pp. 29-74.47. Caplan, 'Review', p. 38.48. Barraclough, Contemporary History, p. 9.

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396 AFRICANAFFAIRShistory, the basic structuralchangeswhich have moulded the present era mustbe clarified. These changes are basic because they provide the context forpoliticalaction. Among the changesthat havetakenplaceareEurope'salteredposition in the world, the r61eof the United States and the Soviet Union assuper-powers,the end (or transformation) f the old empires,the reawakeningof Asia and Africa, the readjustmentof relations between light and dark-skinnedpeoples,and the atomicenergyrevolution. Whilethere are differencesof opinionabout the significanceof each of these developments, he combinationof all of them providescontemporaryhistorywith a distinctivequalitythat setsit off from the precedingera.49The forces that produced the basic structuralchanges were the interlockedmovementsof the industrialand social revolution and the new imperialismofthe latenineteenthcentury. The industrialandsocial revolutionserved both asa solvent and as a catalyst by creating our present-dayurban and industrialsociety. The new imperialism spreadthe revolution which had originatedinwesternEuropeand the United Statesto the rest of the world. Thus, 'by theend of the nineteenthcenturyit was evidentthat the revolutionthat had startedin Europe was a world revolution, that in no sphere, technological,social, orpolitical,couldits impetusbe checkedor restrained.'50 In terms of chronology,the years centring on 1890 serve as the watershed between modern and con-temporaryhistory. The change-overdid not takeplaceat once, anda periodoftransition was needed throughoutwhich the forces of the old order retardedthe break-through f the new. Butby 1960the transitionperiodwascompleted,for new issues were now the major ssues facingthe world. This had not beenthe case a few years earlier. Barracloughdoes caution, however, 'that theworld which has emergedis neithersharplycut off from the world out of whichit emergednor simply a continuationof it; it is a new world with roots in theold.'51While it is Barracloughwho providesthe principal analytical ramework orthe interpretationof the colonial period that I wish to suggest, there are alsoothers who have contributed deas supportiveof Barraclough'shesis. Amongthem is CarlBridenbaughwho, in his 1962 address to the AmericanHistoricalAssociation, ocusedon what he termed 'the greatest urning point in all humanhistory', namely, the 'great mutation' (a term he borrowsfrom biology) thathas takenplace in the natureof humanexistenceduringthe twentiethcentury:

'The Great Mutation, or historical change, has taken place so rapidly'and life has sustained such sudden and radical alterations in the long courseof time) that we arenow sufferingsomethinglike historicalamnesia. In thepresentcentury,firstWesterncivilizationand now the entireglobe have wit-nessedtheinexorable ubstitutionof anartificial nvironmentandamaterialistic49. Ibid, pp. 13-7.50. Ibid, pp. 25, 50, 64.51. Ibid, pp. 24-30.

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COLONIALPERIODIN AFRICANHISTORY 397outlookon life for the oldnatural nvironmentndspiritualworldviewthatlinkedus so irrevocablyo the RecentandDistantPasts. Sopervadingndcomplete asbeen hischange, ndsocomplex as ife become-I almost aidoverwhelming-thatt now appearsprobable hat mid-nineteenth-centuryAmerica rWesternEuropehad more n commonwithfifth-centuryGreece(physically,economically,ocially, mentally,spiritually)han with theirownprojectionsnto the middleof the twentieth entury. Is it possiblehatso shorta time canso alter he conditionof man?'52

AlthoughBridenbaugh'smajorintent was to discussthe questionof howhistorians andealadequately iththepast n lightof the GreatMutation,orourpurposes e hasjoinedBarracloughn puttinghis fingeron thekeyfeatureof twentieth-centuryife as it existson a world-widecale.Anotherhistorianwho has contributedignificantlyo understandinghecontemporaryorldandits relationshipwith the pastis Peter Laslett. Hisstudy,TheWorldWeHaveLost, s concerned asicallywithchangesn socialstructure. The worldwe have lost, that is the traditionalworldwhichinEngland ame o anend after he Tudor-Stuarteriod,53 as abovealla patri-archal ociety. It remained o in its basic nstitutions ntil the arrival f theindustrialevolution ut has ceased o bepatriarchalxcept orcertain estigesand in its emotionalpredisposition.The collapseof patriarchalocietywiththe comingof industrialization,ndnot the rise of capitalism,s the pointofcritical hange. 'Time was when hewholeof life wentforwardn thefamily,in a circleof loved, amiliaraces,knownand ondledobjects, ll to human ize.Thattimehasgoneforever. It makesus verydifferentromourancestors.'54The transformation rom pre-industrial o industrialEnglish society was com-plete by 1900.55 In place of what people considered to be an eternal andunchangeablesociety there came into existence a society which 'is open tochange, is expected indeed to change of itself, or if it does not, to be changed,made better, by an omnicompetentauthority.'56 A changing society in turnmade social revolutionpossible for the first time. Thus, the social history ofEngland during the twentieth century has been one of revolution. Perhapsthe most prominentfeature of this revolution has been somethingapproachinga total transformationn the positionand outlookof women."7 While Laslett's52. Carl Bridenbaugh, 'The Great Mutation', The American Historical Review, 68,2 (Jan., 1963), pp. 316-7.53. Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost (New York, 1965), p. 26. The years1700-10 form 'the final decade of the old world for our purposes' (p. 60).54. Ibid, p. 21.55. Ibid, p. 200.56. Ibid, p. 4.57. Ibid, pp. 219-28. '"Revolution" as meaning a resolution of unendurable socialconflict by reshaping society as a whole has been rejected here as impossible in pre-industrial times' (p. 162). Between 1710 and 1900, the patriarchal nature of Englishsociety was undermined, but at the start of the twentieth century social relationshipswere still in the shape of a pyramid. From that date, however, English society began 'tolook something more like a pear, tending to become an apple' (p. 220).

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398 AFRICANAFFAIRSanalysisdifferssomewhatfrom that of Barraclough-for instance, he does notdistinguishbetween the first and the second industrialrevolutions,nor does heaccept the notion of a watershed between the industrial and pre-industrialeras-they nonetheless are complementary n sustainingthe view that there isa fundamentaldiscontinuitybetween our world and that which precededthetwentieth century.

How do the ideas of Barraclough,Bridenbaughand Laslett provide a newperspective on the colonial period in African history? Do they not simplyconfirmthe view that the era of Europeanrule provideda decisive breakwiththe Africanpast? The answer s that the secondquestionno longerseemslargeenough to be relevant. These historians, but particularly Barraclough,areviewing the twentieth century in a global perspective. Proponents of thedecisive breakargument,on the other hand, are lookingat the colonialperiodalmost wholly within the context of the relationship between Europe andAfrica. Furthermore, hey view Europe in terms of continuityand Africa interms of discontinuity, rather than recognizing that the Great Mutation hasmade the discontinuity of the twentieth century virtually as revolutionaryfor Europe as it has for Africa. The argumentfor continuity is also largelyirrelevant, f one acceptsthe concept of contemporaryhistory. Africanhistorybefore 1880-90 remained largely separate from modern history, despite theintegrativeforces of the pre-colonialcentury.58 After 1960, Africanhistory isan integral part of contemporaryhistory, as is that of every other area of theworld. While the new Africa has roots in the old, it is nonetheless funda-mentally different. If historians are to understandpresent-dayAfrica, there-fore, they must focus primarilynot on the continuitywith the Africanpast butrather on the new structural features that now separateAfrica from its past.The work of Barraclough,Bridenbaughand Laslett provides an antidote forradicalpessimism also. The world has passed through a watershed,a GreatMutation, but the radicalpessimists have failed to perceive this, for in theiranti-capitalist argumentsthey have emphasizedthe element of continuity inhistory (despite viewing the colonial period as providing a decisive break).As Barracloughhas noted, the causal or genetic approach,which originatedwith nineteenth-century German historians and then permeated much ofhistorical scholarship,is no longer suitable for historianswho wish to under-stand contemporary history and its relationship with the preceding era.Historians should cease attempting to demonstrate the continuity of historyand insteadfocus on the differentpatterns hat constitute the past.59To restate the earlier question, how do the ideas of BarracloughandBridenbaugh provide a new perspective on the colonial period in African58. See Paul Bohannan and Philip Curtin, Africa and Africans (revised edition, GardenCity, N.Y., 1971), pp. 277-327; and Robert W. July, A History of the African People(New York, 1970), pp. 175-83 for discussions that date the beginning of modernizationin Africa at or about 1800.59. For note 59, see next page.

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COLONIALPERIODIN AFRICANHISTORY 399history? The leading featureof contemporaryhistory has been industrializa-tion. It in turn has led to the permeationby industrialprocessesof all facetsof human life. Africa has experienced its share of this phenomenon, asOusmaneSembene suggests in his novel about the workerswho struck on theDakar-Niger railwayline for five months beginning in October, 1947:

'And so the strike came to Thies. .... .When the smoke from the trainsno longerdrifted abovethe savanna,they realizedthat an age had ended....Now the machineruled overtheir lands,and when they forcedeverymachinewithin a thousand miles to halt they became conscious of their strength,but consciousalso of their dependence. They began to understand hat themachinewas makingof them a whole new breed of men. It did not belongto them; it was they who belonged to it. When it stopped, it taught themthat lesson. '60Next to industrialization,urbanizationstands as the most prominentaspectof the revolution that was takingplace.61 Towns were not new to Africa,butwhat was new, in Thomas Hodgkin'swords, was 'the great amorphoussqualid

agglomdrationrbaine'.62 While for most of the continent the greatgrowth ofcities took place after the second world war, in South Africalarge-scaleurban-izationdates from the late nineteenthcentury. Another mportantconfigurationof the contemporary ra, and one that was generallyabsentfrom pre-industrialsociety, has been large-scale poverty. This has been described by, amongothers, Basil Davidson. 'The situationin most colonieson the eve of indepen-dence-and therefore in the early years of self-rule-can . . . be summarizedin one short phrase: acute and worseningpoverty.' This povertyhas resultedfrom the demise of ruralAfrica, which propelledmany men into the migrantlabour force. The wages paid to migrantworkers,however,have been insuffi-cient to alleviatepoverty. 'At best, these men could be said to be subsidizingruralpoverty;at worst,they weremerelysurvivingas individuals.'63 A furtherfeature of contemporaryhistory has been the revolt of Africaand Asia againstthe West. Barracloughnotes that59. Barraclough, Contemporary History, p. 17. Ernest Laclau, in 'Feudalism andCapitalism', also faults Frank, and by extension the other radical pessimists, for theiremphasis on continuity. He argues that greatly expanded productivity of labour hasled to a change in the nature of metropolitan exploitation of the satellite countries. Therelationship remains one of dependence but not necessarily one of underdevelopment.'It seems to me more useful', he writes, 'to underline these differences and discontinuitiesthan to attempt to show the continuity and identity of the process, from Hernan Cortesto General Motors' (p. 37). Yet Laclau still views the twentieth century in terms ofunderlying continuity, because for him the basic change was from the feudal to thecapitalist mode of production in the seventeenth century (p. 27).60. Ousmane Sembene, God's Bits of Wood, trans. by Francis Price (Garden City, N.Y.,1970), p. 74. In this novel and in films such as 'Tauw', Sembene also examines in detailthe collapse of the patriarchal society.61. Barraclough, Contemporary History, p. 53.62. Thomas Hodgkin, Nationalism in Colonial Africa (New York, 1957), p. 64.63. Davidson, Which Way Africa ?, pp. 83, 87-88.

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400 AFRICANAFFAIRS'the change in the position of the peoples of Asia and Africa and in theirrelationswith Europe was the surest sign of the advent of a new era, andwhen the history of the first half of the twentieth century, which, for mosthistorians,is still dominatedby Europeanwars and European problems,byFascismandNationalSocialism,and by Mussolini,Hitler, and Stalin-comesto be writtenin a longer perspective,there is little doubtthat no single themewill prove to be of greater importancethan the revolt against the west.'64

To this extent, then, developments n Africa have been at the very core of theevents that have shaped contemporaryhistory.The colonial period thus was decisive in African history, not, however,because it was the colonial period, but because it coincided with the era oftransitionfrom modernhistory to contemporaryhistory. Historiansof Africatherefore should perhaps stop labelling the years from the late nineteenthcentury to 1960 as the colonial period, and instead term them the period oftransition from traditional to contemporaryAfrica. Its major feature wasnot colonialismbut ratherthe spreadof a world revolution nto Africa.64. Barraclough, Contemporary History, pp. 153-4.

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