Colonial Change 1918-1950

For next week, we will focus on Africans, Chapter 10.  I would like you all to watch the documentary, "Pokot - Children of the Nile," which nicely illustrates the world of The River Between. If you have not read Houseboy, I would like you to read The River Between, or do a really good job of faking it (summaries and studies abound on the internet for this novel).

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 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?