Colonialism

Early Responses to Colonialism

Some of the earliest political ties between Africa and the African American community developed in the early 1800s. These ties were principally formed by [Page 204]colonization societies whose goal was to resettle American blacks to Africa to create free, noncolonial black states there. In 1815, an African American sea captain named Paul Cuffe helped about forty former slaves settle the colony of Sierra Leone in West Africa. From the 1820s to the 1840s, the American Colonization Society relocated more than 11,000 African Americans to the African state of Liberia. In 1858, the African Civilization Society was also formed to promote black settlement of West Africa.

These early efforts focused less on protesting the injustices of European colonialism in Africa (which had still barely begun in earnest) and more on reestablishing political and cultural connections with Africa. They also affected relatively few African Americans. Most black Americans, struggling under the burden of slavery, had little time, energy, or inclination to concern themselves with the plight of Africans. This changed, however, with the abolition of slavery following the American Civil War (1861–1865). Emboldened by their victory over white oppression at home, more African Americans began to look with dismay on the condition of blacks in Africa.

Pan-Africanism

In 1875, the only significant European colonies in Africa were Algeria, in North Africa, and the Cape Colony, in what is now South Africa. At this time, only about 10 percent of the African continent was controlled by European powers. However, European powers had long-established trading ties with Africa, and they coveted Africa's wealth of raw materials. Between 1880 and 1899, Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, and Belgium engaged in the so-called Scramble for Africa, a determined drive to colonize as much of the continent as possible. By 1900, Liberia and Ethiopia were the only remaining independent nations in Africa. This turn of events led African Americans to take a more active interest in African affairs.

In the United States, black intellectual and sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois was at the forefront of the anticolonial movement known as Pan-Africanism. In 1919, DuBois organized the first Pan-African Congress in London, a meeting of black delegates from fifteen different countries. World War I had just ended, and the victorious Allied powers were meeting to decide the terms of the peace, including what to do with the African colonies owned by the defeated Germans. The congress demanded that the Allies administer the German territories for the benefit of the Africans who lived there. It also demanded that Africans should be allowed to govern.

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