Did Africans south of the Sahara benefit from the interactions with their colonisers? The simple answer is yes, they did benefit. However, to contextualise this answer, one must question whether colonialisation was the only way that Africans would have interacted with the European former slavers. The answer is a big, NO. A relationship other than slavery and colonialism was possible.

Take the example of the initial relationship between Portugal and the Kongo Empire. This African empire was in present day Angola, Congo, and Gabon. The initial relationship of the two kingdoms was one of mutual respect with the Portuguese. Bilateral trade and social and cultural exchanges dominated, and the Kongo Empire flourished. The two empires even exchanged diplomats. Old Benin traded with Portugal on a more or less equal footing from the late 1400s. They also exchanged diplomats in the 1700s. These interactions were five hundred years ago, and if that is the kind of relationship that had been the norm between the other colonising Europeans and Africa, Africa would now be in a much, much better place. However, callous greed won the day, and the Europeans decided on slavery followed by colonialism, and not mutual respect and trade.

Lest it be forgotten, Europe owed a lot of its development to its positive interaction with Eurasia and the Indian Subcontinent.

The Benefits

The shotgun pointed to the head of the conquered provided resources for developing the lands of the conquerors. To some degree, the conquered also benefitted. Colonialism, for us:

• Brought the Queen’s language, which enables us to talk and be understood by half the world, if not the whole world.
• For sure, the treatment of many ailments was a thousand times better than the mumbo-jumbo nonsense from some of our witchdoctors, who claim to hear voices that guide them on what to prescribe! The African herbalists are different as they depend on the chemical content of their nostrums, and many of their medicines have some good effect. Indeed, a number of drugs have been developed from the knowledge based on plants used in African herbal medications.
• Public health issues like vaccinations, sanitation and clean water improved our lives, without a doubt.
• The risk of violent death from nature, from tribal wars and even from the whims of chiefs was also reduced considerably. In the olden days, there were no prisons in most African societies, so the standard punishment was banishment, amputation of something or other, or being deprived of one’s life.
• Colonialism also brought peace and stability, which in the main were initially disrupted by slavery anyway.
• Other positives were in infrastructure. Roads and railways, ports, and facilities like airfields made transportation so much easier and allowed us to join the wider community.
• Then there is the simple-sounding standardisation of weights and measures, and urban planning.
• And of course, we are now integrated into the money system of the world,
• And we have electricity, mostly load-shedded electricity.
• And not to forget education!
• The fact is most of the world, including Africa, has taken up European sartorial habits (dress).
• European judiciary systems. As different ethnicities moved into towns, mixed and mingled, we adopted a radically new judiciary system. Cities and towns created new social models in which ethnicities had to live together, in an orderly manner.
• European capitalist ideas
• Europeans tastes and even European foods.
• Colonialism also brought new political models like central governance, civil law, new economic models that allowed millions to coexist. Institutions like the police and the civil service allow us to run a modern state.
• Most of these were massive improvements on what was on the ground.
• Monogamy, democracy, armies? Not so sure about these!

So, there is a lot that we owe, positively and in some cases negatively, to Europe.

LOWDOWN ON MISSIONARIES

The missionaries who came in advance brought churches and salvation in the hereafter. The missionaries usually came first, followed by traders, and finally the home government of the missionaries. Without a doubt, Missionaries were a part of the colonisation template.

In the pre-colonial and colonial period, the missionaries’ contribution to bringing modernity in many countries was massive. Missionaries brought schools, European technology, hospitals, clinics, modern medicines, and agricultural education. In most cases this was way before the colonial governments did so. On balance, Christian missionaries all over Africa were the initial drivers of change. They also helped preserve local languages by translating the Bible into chosen languages and by translating dictionaries from the colonial language to chosen local languages. In some instances, they changed oral histories of many African ethnicities into written down histories that the current generations can read and refer to.

Some missionaries were plainly racist and preferred to take the moral high ground. There were also many who had a genuine desire to convert Africans to Christianity and to improve their quality of life regarding health and education. This education, in the initial stages, was primarily for catechism. Some missionaries were spies in a good way, to inform and correct the colonial masters on misconceptions they may have had. Others spied in a bad way as informers. Some missionaries did not understand the genesis and benefits of some African cultures which they labelled as primitive and discouraged piously. In many colonies, voices of the white clergy against oppression, mistreatment, segregation (even in churches) and dehumanisation of Africans were often muted. Their voices were not absent, but they were muted.

Missionaries have played many roles in Africa. Many of these roles can be viewed in a positive light and others in a not so positive light. On balance without the Christian missionaries, the velocity of education and health service delivery would have been that much slower in Africa.