THE QUEEN AND COLONIZATION

I believe we Africans have to develop a well reasoned consensus about  colonization. I have always looked at this from the perspective of morality and history at the same time. 

People frequently make the mistake of using the morality of the present to judge actions that are in the distant past. It is a grave error. It will create poor judgement and you will make unnecessary enemies where you could have made friends. 

This is the error committed by the US professor who bears a Nigerian-sounding name and who was cursing the late queen. She did not speak with depth and humanity. 

 

1. Colonization is different from the Slave Trade - both Transatlantic and Transsahara. 

2. Colonization, to be honest with you, fitted into the morality of that time. In fact, it so fitted that Africans were capturing other tribes in Africa to sell to slave traders. Kings in Nigeria went on raids to capture men and women to sell to the white people.  These were sellers who owned slaves, made eunuchs, used indentured labour and all of that. You cannot exonerate the seller and blame the buyer.

We close with this. I read account of a black slave in North Carolina whose master diligently prevented from reading. However, he cleverly hid to read the master's kiss elementary book and with that, he gradually managed to tach himself how to read and progressed into educating himself. 

Is unwise for us former colonies of the British Empire to fail to see that Britain built schools where everyone in the colonies were free to get educated. I will like to set it down here that anyone who teaches you to read is not your enemy or your oppressor in the real sense of the word. That person is interested in your development and is empowering you to create a future for yourself. You may not like that statement because it runs across the grains of typical anti-colonization anger, but if you examine it, you will see that is is correct. 

We cannot divorce essential human nature from human history. We had internal colonization too. The Yoruba and Fulani fought wars of subjugation for decades until the matter was finally settled in Oshogbo battlefields in 1840. The Kiriji wars were about internal colonization too and Europeans to advantage of it to sell arms to the warriors. 

We must never fail to understand these things from the perspective of how humans act and conduct politics under changing moralities. 

Finally, we cannot close our eyes to our present struggles against the structure - or lack thereof - of wealth and opportunity distribution in our country. You will spend all day trying to make a difference between that and colonization and all you will have is marginal success!