Colonialism in Africa: Yesterday, today and tomorrow | DW News Africa

racist monuments are being pulled down streets are being renamed many former colonial nations are facing a moment of reckoning over the actions of their forebears today we look at how colonialism has shaped our past in africa how it is impacting our presence and we ask what needs to be done so that the future looks different black people are still trying to fight for their rights and still trying to have a space not being second-class citizens the colonialists they they took everything that could benefit africans we as the african people we forgot well i believe we forgot where we came from hello i'm christy mundo welcome to dw news africa the world seems to be taking notice of persisting symbols of racism and the need to confront the legacy of colonialism in the u.s and the uk a number of statues of slave owners and colonialists have been defaced or taken down in recent weeks in belgium local authorities removed the bust of king leopold ii in the city of ghent and here in berlin preparations are underway to rename an underground train station because the current name is derogatory to black people it may be a new conversation around the world but not in africa think back to south africa in 2015 when students at the university of cape town successfully lobbied for the removal of a monument to cecil rhodes another colonialist for weeks crowds of students protested on the campus rhodes statue was to them a symbol of institutional racism that they say persisted at the university and across africa people are fighting a similar battle our first report takes us to southwest cameroon where my colleague blaise eun met one activist who's been working for decades to erase tributes to colonizers andre bless osama has made it his mission to take down street signs bearing names of colonial figures from the past today his target is charles de gaulle the former french president and world war ii leader in dweller cameron's financial hub many streets are named after colonialists if someone wants to change that parish when you go to paris you don't find a monument to the germans who occupied it during the war some parts of china were controlled by the british but you won't find a statue of a british person in china so this should not be the case in africa all societies have their heroes and every nation has its pride [Music] summer has been tracking down monuments for the last five years this statue of philippe luclear a french world war ii general is at the top of his list esama has repeatedly toppled and beheaded the general and the government is tired of putting him back up again agents have a summer under surveillance and affairs has been built around the statue to keep him away no no no no no he's lucky he's protected by this fence everything we say is backed by evidence historical evidence is clear everything that has been written about leclerc is a way of paying homage to france france but we are not in france esama insta wants to preserve the legacy of cameron's own heroes two years ago he commissioned the statue of renowned footballer at the moment there are more status of french colonial figures in cameroon than that of local legends this course has come with a heavy price for summer since 2015 he has been to prison every single year for putting down monuments of french colonial figures in cameroon like most young people in cameroon 31 year old kamanu stella supports summer she visits him whenever he's arrested and held in detention our brothers sisters and parents fought for us we have not recognized their sacrifice at the same time we're putting up monuments to colonialists i don't think that's right is hoping his campaign will change people's views of the past by replacing symbols of colonialism celebrating instead cameron's own achievements and a goal of advancing future prosperity [Music] for many people the removal of racist and colonial monuments is an important step to erase painful reminders of the past but of course there is much more to do because colonialism continues to impact the lives of people on the continent in the present day and in many different ways our reporters in ghana south africa and kenya took to the streets to ask people how they felt colonialism affected them today i grew up in an education system that made me myopic in terms of i think you know sometimes as a ghanaian i don't think i've been that creative or been that solution oriented in finding solutions to certain problems i can solve myself but because of the way i have been trained colonism makes africa in such a big way that it brought division amongst us as africans as we now cannot come together and see eye to eye as africans because we now regard each other as enemies instead of us coming together with that brother love and helping each other built up personally i have relatives in burkina faso and mali but because of colonialism when i visit them i'm seen as a stranger from ghana and not a member of the family so my family is so fragmented that it's difficult to even connect with them for me the family system has been broken because of colonialism a lot of our resources are still owned by companies from from outside so from from our former colonial masters and our governments are more interested in inviting those guys to come as external investors and giving them interests and you know tax breaks and everything they can do as opposed to seeing how we the locals can be able to invest in our own countries we don't own our economies so a number of examples given here of how the past impacts the present another issue is one of disproportionate land ownership on the continent it's also a legal legacy of colonialism between 1860 and 1960 settlers and white-owned companies took 1.5 million square kilometers of land from indigenous people in southern africa that's more than a third of the land much of it was not returned despite the formal ending of colonialism in namibia for example white people own some 70 of the farmland today but make up just six percent of the population that's despite government attempts at land reform south africa has similar inequalities 72 percent of commercial agricultural land is in the hands of its white minority parliament there is working on a plan to redistribute some of this land but that's the situation as it stands in kenya the talai and kipsigis people are still fighting for their land in 1902 british colonialists drove them from their homes in the lush western highlands to make way for tea plantations last year with the help of kenyan and british lawyers they started a collective effort to push the uk government to account for colonial colonial-era injustices at the time dw traveled to kericho to meet some of the victims here's their story hardship and suffering has followed ludea to teach her entire life when she was just a child she was separated from her family together with thousands of talai and kipsikis people she was expelled from her ancestral lands at 96 years old she still vividly recalls the trauma of that experience i don't remember the date but the hour we were chased away was four in the afternoon i was so frightened my stomach started aching and i started vomiting [Music] ludia's parents were forcibly removed to so-called national reserves making way for acres and acres of profitable tea plantations today they are owned by multinational companies ludia stayed behind to work on one of the british tea estates there she was repeatedly raped by her employer who got her pregnant when the white man as she calls him attacked her for the first time she was only 13 years old there was nothing i could do he used a lot of force to overpower me i didn't understand what was going on i was in a lot of pain and i was crying a lot when kenya became independent in the 1960s ludia was left to fend for herself as an outcast with three biracial children and no money on land to live on today she is one of more than one hundred thousand victims who are demanding that a united nations special investigator opened an inquiry into their plight british soldiers expelled families from their homes stole land and livestock and committed gross human rights violations all for the sake of planting this crop the victims of this land appropriation say there is blood in the tea here they want reparations for their maltreatment and above all an apology for the crimes committed under the crown the last survivor of one of the biggest mass deportations to gwasi that was 1934. many members of his family died he still hopes the complaint lodged with un will compel the uk to answer for its colonial crimes i feel so much pain why are the british delaying compensation for the suffering and not giving back to us the land they took away from us until there's no one left to testify the other old men have died i'm the only one left to tell the suffering of gwasi like kibore lodia and her daughter hope should be able to witness an apology if they ask for forgiveness we will not refuse to accept we will not refuse that apology never came sadly ludia chirotech has since passed away without experiencing the return of her ancestral land or any other form of reparation the case of the talai and kipsikis is ongoing i'd like to bring in rodney dixon a british lawyer representing them mr dickson thank you for making time time is ticking for many of these claimants where is this case at the case is with the united nations at the moment but it's also with the un united kingdom foreign office we have lodged the complaint and case there and taken it to the united nations to act as expeditiously as possible because every day matters to those who've been waiting so long for acknowledgement and apology and compensation this lawsuit is against the uk government but the land is currently in the hands of private companies unilever for one how will all this come together well it is the uk government that is responsible we say uh because of the colonial past which has continued from successive government to to governments it doesn't get cut off just just because the colonial period ended the the damage that arose should and and can still be compensated now um but to the extent that the the land is owned by others now then they have to act to ensure that they compensate persons properly or where their land is actually no longer being used or not being used to return that land it's really a question of getting around the negotiating table and and hammering out a constructive and positive solution that can be done and for too long it's been avoided let us talk about that solution what outcome are you pursuing here the victims first and foremost my clients want acknowledgement for what has happened uh and they want uh an apology many have said who who are old that they don't want to die without hearing that apology that that's the the main thrust of their claim i think that would apply to any of us who who were in their situation uh beyond that yes people do want compensation so they can get on with their lives and also where it is possible to restore land to to do that this is not some kind of land grab people have tried to paint it in that way and demonize it not at all far from it it's an attempt a legitimate and rightful attempt to get an acknowledgement for what has happened in the past and compensation that is commensurate in the circumstances mr dickson what are the obstacles that stand in the way of cases such as this one and what needs to change uh often the biggest obstacle is the time that is passed legislation is often in place as is the case here to stop actual claims being brought to to court which seems rather unfair i i think we we would all agree that just because time has passed doesn't mean that they shouldn't be a remedy especially when people have been trying for so long so there are time obstacles uh but then frankly there's just the obstacle of uh those now who are in power and not wanting to acknowledge what has happened a concern that that might open the floodgates to to many historic injustices uh and and that that can't be a reason either we we say there needs to be a true moral awakening and recognition here and that can readily be done and it will be to everyone's benefit this is in the interests of all parties it's not one-sided mr rodney dickson thank you for your time sir the chances of that moral awakening as rodney dickson puts it appear slim we reached out to the british foreign and commonwealth office and asked if the uk government was willing to issue a formal apology and offer reparations to claimants we received the following statement while the fco understands the pain and grievances felt by the capsigies and the talai peoples of kirichou county the fco does not accept liability for the alleged violations [Music] looking to the future let's imagine that all injustices were redressed and what was taken was given back would that be the end of the story for victims of colonialism or do we as africans have to do some work in ourselves i'll be talking to a psychologist about that in a moment but have a quick listen to what others think maybe we might want revenge but if we really if we're talking about moving forward and progressing i don't think that's really going to help we need to sit down and we need to create our own blueprint the change that we need in this continent is really fundamental and it's really really deep within within us and it doesn't have to come from somebody who has done something uh several several years ago because no matter what if they pay back they do whatever it still exists in our mind so i think the better way to go about this is to move on from your mind and then you know just build up all the things that you want to build my dream is to be free economically be free in all all aspects and enjoy my life for now i think that we owe ourselves that to be able to change our mindset it's actually we need to decolonize our minds that's what people are suggesting there and it's a subject that's been addressed by many great thinkers for example the acclaimed afro-caribbean writer and philosopher franz fanon wrote imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land and from our minds as well but how how do you do that i'd like to put that question to nonfundo mujapi she is a clinical psychologist and the executive director of the center for the study of violence and reconciliation she is in johannesburg welcome to you know many people are off the view that the african mind is still colonized how does a colonized mind manifest itself yeah so for me really it's not as much the external stuff i know there's a lot of talk about issues of language what we were but it is the internal state of our mind it is about the relationship that we have with ourselves personally as african people and their and how they need manifest and how we interact with each other because at the core of colonialism was the psyche that says that because of the color of your skin you look less than the other you are worthless than the other or because of the color of your skin you are better than the other or you are with more than the other so at the core of a colonized mind is the mind that think that the value and the worth of an individual is determined by how they actually look and therefore you piss you then would like to pursue a certain way of being because you think that the way that you are is not good enough and you are likely to then treat people that look like you very similar to those that had actually colonized the people so for me i always say that the work of decolonialization is really about at the core the undoing of what does it take to say you are wealthy as a human being and taking this thing that the color of your skin and whatever that represents then determines your worth you know as you talked about that i thought about some of the afrophobia that we have on the continent just to the point you made about how we then treat other people in the same way that the colonizers treated us having said that then nom fundo how do we decolonize the mind so i always say that at the core of decolonization is the work of the reclaiming of our dignity actually i don't think it's even just reclaiming it's fighting for our dignity and our wealth the work that we need to do as the african people is i like what martin luther king said he said at the core of our blueprint we have to have this sense this unshakeable knowing that we are wasting that we are significant as human beings it is not about the color of our skin it is not about the car we drive it is not the external things that determine our worth because if as a people we could really so there's a lot of transformation that we need to do around just this innate sense of not being enough of worthlessness where we then use the external things to try and fit that in and be able to know our wealth and treat other people the same way that is the greatest work the negative messages we've been told about ourselves as as a people when we grow up some are the voices of our parents some are the voices of the colonizers themselves and we have now internalized them as our truth we don't even question them anymore so we have to really question the things that we've accepted as normal and i think the other challenge that we have is that is when we are so asleep to how much we've assimilated and accepted this as truth and when we get into position of power how we use than whiteness as the standard of our worth and we haven't found ways of saying what is a standard of being okay just as you are as a human being not even as an african as a human being looks like no fonda just looking to the future what is your vision of how an empowered african with a decolonized mind is uh if we're all in that state how could the continent be better in a sense i think for me and an empowered african would be an african who is absolutely sure of who they are that they don't need to feel that they must prove themselves for being here in the world that by being human by being born into this world they belong to this world it is their space to occupy it's an african who is very clear about their sense of direction and don't feel that they either have to excuse and be apologetic for who they are or that they have to constantly be fighting to prove themselves to others but they are so comfortable in their skin they are so confident in who they are they then treat other people with that same respect and they are able to then pull up other africans and make them see their worth inside of them for me that is an empowered person that's nonfundo mojave the executive director of the center for the study of violence and reconciliation in johannesburg thank you so much rufundo for that insight thank you what does an empowered africa look like to you i'm keen to know so write in the comments section or get in touch with me directly my twitter handle is at mundo 7 i look forward to hearing from you bye you

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Keywords: DW News, colonialism, black lives matter, colonialism africa, racism, anti-racism protests, anti-racism protest africa, colonialism statues, colonialist statues, cecil rhodes, rhodes statue, colonialism in africa, colonialism in africa today, africa postcolonialism, colonialism africa effects, legacy of colonialism in africa

Id: XzxWd_F7bDU

Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 19 2020