Europeans used a nail to drive out another nail.

Preamble — There is no education in the second kick of a mule.

After suffering the indignities and pogrom of slavery by the Europeans and Arabs, Africa was once again beset by the vicissitudes of colonialism. Why did Africans “allow” themselves to be colonised right after the end of slavery? Hindsight is 20/20, and many Africans believe that after the experience of slavery, Africans should have resisted colonialism more than they did. This is because there is no education in the second kick of a mule. This means that going by the way they were mistreated by whites, Africans should have known that the same whites now coming into the interior of Africa would not behave any differently.

Note: During the slave trade, the Europeans stuck to the African coast and never ventured inland. This was because of the very high chance of dying from malaria and other infectious diseases. The discovery of qquinine changed things as it gave the colonialists, missionaries, and traders a very good chance of coming out of the interior of Africa alive.

REASONS FOR COLONIALISM

1850-1900 AD was the beginning of colonialism. This period was a terrible time for Africa south of the Sahara. Africa was in a terrible place at the time the Europeans invaded the interior and carved it up. From mid-19^th to the turn of the Century, Sub-Sahara Africa was severely weakened by drought, famine, locusts, diseases (jiggers/typhus/cholera/smallpox) and internecine tribal wars for land or slaves. The advancing colonialists found it easy, and their thin white line held partly because of these vicissitudes. The missionaries were very important: they came in advance bringing schools, churches, and salvation in the hereafter as well as European technology, medicines, etc. These looked like — and at times were — salvation to the weakened and suffering Africans.

• AD 1450-1850 – The slave trade depleted Africa’s populations and severely disrupted all social, economic, and political trajectories.
• AD 1713 – Smallpox brought by the Europeans wiped out millions of Africans. In the Cape, in South Africa, over 90 percent of the Khoisan people perished from this disease.
• 1784-1795 – The mother of all droughts, and consequent famine, affected Southern Africa severely.
• 1850s – Village stockades in the mid-1800s were common. Villagers got together in bigger villages to avoid or fight off slavers. This led to the abandonment of agricultural land and resulted in an increase in wild animals. This, in turn, led to an increase in tsetse flies and consequently an increase in sleeping sickness. This led to more famine and starvation.
• 1890 – Epidemic of South American sand jiggers. The sandflea or jigger-flea arrived in Africa in 1872. Jiggers was a terribly painful and disfiguring disease, and patients could not harvest food in the fields.
• 1888 – 1892 – A great famine hit Africa south of the Sahara because of rain failure. This was at the same time that a locust plague and a plague of caterpillars hit the continent.
• 1889 onwards – Rinderpest (a viral infection AKA cattle plague) – killed-off over 90 percent of cattle in Sub-Sahara Africa between 1889 to early 1900s. The disease spread to Ethiopia/East Africa/Rift Valley to Rhodesia and thru Bechuanaland to South Africa and German West Africa. It also spread to West Africa through the Sahel. Affected not only cattle, goats and sheep but buffalo/giraffe/eland/antelopes/warthogs/bush pigs. Rinderpest led to the collateral deaths of 50 to 70 percent of populations, leading to massive social disruption where cattle were integral to life.
• Because of rinderpest, the wild animal carrying capacity of the Savannah dropped drastically.
• Rinderpest also made sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) explode.
• Rotting carcasses brought infectious diseases and the Africans weak from hunger and illnesses had to fight off vultures and also predatory animals like hyenas, leopards, and lions.
• 1900-1902 – Yet another drought and famine.
• Late 1800s and early 1900s – During this period, there were frequent outbreaks of typhus, cholera, and more smallpox all over Africa. Smallpox reduced populations by up to 90 percent in some areas.
• In addition, Africa had some super cruel chiefs and some really bad customs. The subjugation of weaker tribes by stronger tribes meant that in some areas the colonialists were welcomed as saviors.
• Political destabilization of the whole of Africa by groups armed by outsiders was common. Usually, these were coastal tribes/groups that went inland to raid for people and for cattle.
• West Africa had many strong tribes – including Asante/Ashanti – that ravaged large areas. Egypt sponsored disruptive groups in Sudan all the way down to present-day Uganda.
• The Afrikaners in 1838, as they started off from the Cape going northwards, in what they called the Great Trek, the Boers caused great destabilization among African tribes of the interior killing wantonly. During this trek, The Afrikaners used Christian fundamentalism the same way Islamic sects like Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, the Taliban and Islamic State are misusing their religion: to hide prejudice and bigotry and commit murder and pillage.
• 1815 – 1840. Southern and Central Africa were also destabilized by the wars propagated by Shaka Zulu. Shaka was of the Nguni ethnicity, from present-day KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The wars, referred to as ‘Mfecane’ meaning the crushing, were extremely destabilizing. They led to massive movements of people escaping these wars. People ended up all the way up to present-day Tanzania. This was at the same time that the colonialists were sinking their fangs into Africa.
• The Portuguese and the French would provoke wars all over Africa to obtain slaves from the resulting upheavals. The Portuguese in Delagoa Bay – Maputo in present day Mozambique – did exactly this at the same time of Mfecane.
• After slavery, in the coastal centres of West Africa, where trade had been going on for centuries, the locals at times preferred to side with Europeans rather than with the traditional rulers. In addition, most coastal polities were hated by interior tribes. This was because most coastal tribes had been middlemen in the slave trade. The new normal was legitimate trade in agricultural exports like in palm oil, groundnuts, and gum. Notwithstanding this, the Europeans still invaded those African societies that showed too much initiative!

ALL THESE LED TO EASY COLONISATION OF AFRICA SOUTH OF THE SAHARA