Impact of European Colonialism and Imperialism on African...

Effect of European Imperialism on African Women What effect did the European imperialism in Africa have on the women of both continents? And was this effect advantageous or injurious to the women themselves? Judging by the extremely limited amount of information available on the subject, one could conclude probably a very minimal one. However, upon further investigation, one can see that this effect, although ignored by historians, was very profound and real to the women who lived in Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The majority of the information obtained is about the impact of imperialism on the women of Africa, which is to be expected in todays politically-correct society. However, this causes†¦show more content†¦Europeans had made their presence in Africa felt for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years before the colonialism commenced. African women were connected to Europeans in many different ways. Sometimes there were marriages between the two cultures. Sometimes African women were ensla ved by Europeans. Nearly everyone in Africa had been exposed to or heard of the missionaries preaching their way across the continent (European Imperialism). Often, when Europeans first encountered Africans, the situation was not one of hostility, but of curiosity and a desire to understand, rather than to judge or change one another. However, along with European exploration of Africa came European exploitation of Africans and African raw materials (French in West Africa). One early British traveler wrote of the African women he encountered, I do not recollect a single instance of hardheartedness towards me in the women. In all my wanderings and wretchedness, I found them uniformly kind and compassionate (Gross and Bingham volume I 128). However, as droves of Europeans entered their continent, many African women joined together in resistance against this gradual invasion. 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