Colonialism And Modernity In Africa

Abstract

Colonialism and modernity are topics or aspects of African history that go hand in hand where one is the consequent of the latter. Some scholars view that modernity is the aftermath of the colonial system and others argue contrary to this. Some of the raised questions to this assumption are whether or not Africa would have been at this state had colonisation not taken place, was Africa on the right path to modernity, would Africa have been one of the influential and leading continents globally? Colonialism had an impact on Africa’s political system, economy, tradition, religion and advancement to mention a few. From all this, one can see how this topic of colonialism and modernity stimulates different emotions when discussing it.

The aim of this essay is to discuss or review Taiwo’s assumption of how colonialism prevented Africa from advancing into a condition of being modern, the evidence used to frame and support this argument and also examine the sources used to support these

Taiwo suggests that had the colonists treated Africans like human beings and reach a certain agreement, resources would have been equally shared or transitioned and there would have been a progressive movement towards modernity. Africans who seemed to have knowledge and skills of how to process raw materials into goods should have been empowered and Africa would also been at a better state now and then.

When looking at the state of Africa before the era of colonisation, it is said that there was a university in Timbuktu, Sonkero University and this was the first university in the world. This university was established around the twentieth century and had about 25 000 students in attendance. The lessons taught here were of Islamic ethics that were believed to be the foundation of human knowledge. (African Echo, n.d.) This may be evidence to support that Africa was already on the right direction to modernity and eventually the rest of the world would know about