Human world

Europeans in Africa

Queen Victoria
Yoruba, Ijebu Ode, Nigeria, early 20th century
Accession Number 13.2.09.27

“Most of us who were raised during … the colonial era are sharply aware of the ways in which the colonisers were never as fully in control as our elders allowed them to appear.”
Kwame Anthony Appiah (1992)

Changes introduced during colonial occupation in the first half of the 20th century seem to have shaped modern Africa. They include:

• international boundaries still in place today
• infrastructures and technologies used to exploit African resources
• models for modern African administrative and health systems
• Christianity and western education

European rule depended on African intermediaries such as traditional chiefs and elders, clerks and police officers – all of whom defended their own economic or political interests. Many Africans kept much of their existing cultural traditions including music, dance, social obligations and religious practices.