At the conclusion of the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, which notoriously carved up the African continent and apportioned its territories to Europe’s imperial powers of the day, signatories to the act that formalized the new borders and zones of influence highlighted education and the “material well-being of the native populations” as justification for their historic power grabs.
Over the half century or so that followed what came to be known as the “Scramble for Africa,” Europe did virtually nothing to further education on the continent and inflicted some of the worst atrocities of the modern era on Africans, as colonists raced to extract natural resources using land seizures and forced labor, and implemented military conscription to fight and provide pack horse-like logistical support in Europe’s wars.
Most of what is recalled today about this terrible scramble are the arbitrary borders that created numerous economically crippled, landlocked territories and by turns divided members of coherent ethnic groupings and thrust together people with vast cultural differences or histories of enmity. Forgotten almost completely are the moral rationales that Western powers mobilized to justify their takeover and stewardship of an entire continent.
