This week marks 140 years since European colonial powers divided Africa. For three months, starting on 15 November 1884, colonialists from almost every European country, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States negotiated in Berlin, Germany, over who would control our home continent, with no African voices present to challenge the butchery.
This notorious event, which finalised on 26 February 1885, carved up 80 per cent of our continent. However, by 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained untouched. The Berlin conference took place after the ‘scramble for Africa’ began and shaped how people today view Africa: As a reservoir of natural resources and our people as sources of labour. Slavery, anyone?
Britain, amongst the principal colonisers of Africa, claimed an almost continuous stretch of land from the Cape of Good Hope to Cairo, controlling what is now South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, ‘British East Africa’ (now Kenya, Uganda, and Zanzibar [now part of Tanzania]), Sudan, South Sudan, and Egypt. Britain also controlled areas now known as Nigeria and Ghana (then dubbed the ‘Gold Coast’), Sierra Leone and the Gambia.
France claimed vast territories stretching from Mauritania to the Central African Republic (then called ‘French West Africa’), along with Gabon and the Republic of Congo (‘French Equatorial Africa’). It also controlled the Indian Ocean archipelagos of Madagascar and Comoros.
Under King Leopold II, Belgium ruled the Democratic Republic of the Congo (‘Belgian Congo’), while Portugal established its presence in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau.
Italy’s territories included Somalia (‘Italian Somaliland’), while Germany controlled Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania), Namibia (‘German Southwest Africa’) and Tanzania (‘German East Africa’). Spain, with the smallest claim, took Equatorial Guinea (‘Rio Muni’), plus what is now Western Sahara and a sliver of Morocco.
Perhaps it is time for a Pan-African conference to eliminate colonial borders, paving the way for a future in which we can reclaim our identity, agency, and land.
Sources:
https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/partition-africa/
https://archiv.diplo.de/arc-en/the-political-archive/general-act-2684414