Africa under European Colonialism: A Tragic Chapter of Mass Extermination
M.T.B
The dominant narrative about European colonialism has historically been built on the myth of the “civilizing mission,” famously invoked by French Prime Minister Jules Ferry in 1884, along with the ideas of progress, modernization, and universal modernity. However, critical analysis reveals that colonialism, in its multiple dimensions, constituted the largest genocide in human history.
Beyond the physical extermination of millions of lives, colonialism destroyed entire cultural, linguistic, and epistemological systems. It also imposed economic and political structures that continue to reproduce global inequalities today, as highlighted by Martinican poet and intellectual Aimé Césaire in his 1950 Discourse on Colonialism, and Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe in his 2001 works.
Colonialism not only meant mass killings but also the destruction of local economies, the plunder of resources, the imposition of artificial borders, and the creation of extractive regimes. Today, neocolonialism persists through institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and mechanisms such as the CFA franc, which still ties 14 African countries to the French treasury.
1. Colonialism and Genocide: A Legal–Historical Reading
It is essential to bridge the moral and philosophical critique of colonialism with the international legal instruments that allow us to classify it as genocide today.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), genocide is defined as “the deliberate intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.”
This definition applies to multiple colonial episodes:
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The extermination of Indigenous peoples in the Americas, as documented by historian David Stannard in American Holocaust (1992).
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The massacres in the Congo under King Leopold II, where an estimated 10 million Congolese died between 1885 and 1908, described by Congolese intellectual Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja (2002) and Adam Hochschild (King Leopold’s Ghost, 1998).
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The genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples in Namibia (1904–1908), recognized as the first genocide of the 20th century, studied by German historian Jürgen Zimmerer (2005).
Colonial domination was not merely territorial but also involved projects to re-engineer society, religion, and language—often based on the assumption that colonized peoples were inferior or “subhuman.”
2. Césaire and the Condemnation of Colonial Barbarism
Beyond legal definitions, voices from the colonized world have powerfully condemned colonialism. In Discourse on Colonialism (1950), Aimé Césaire denounced the hypocrisy of Europe in exporting what it called “civilization,” which in practice was organized barbarism.
For Césaire, colonialism was not just a moral tragedy but a political pathology of modern Europe: “A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization.”
He further argued that Nazism was not an aberration but rather the return of colonial practices to Europe itself: “What the European cannot forgive Hitler for is not the crime itself—the crime against man—but the crime against the white man.”
This framing exposes the continuity between colonial atrocities and the Holocaust, both born of the same racial hierarchies and imperial arrogance.
3. Frantz Fanon: Violence as the Core of Colonialism
Césaire’s critique was further radicalized by Frantz Fanon, the Martinican psychiatrist and revolutionary. In The Wretched of the Earth (1961), Fanon described colonialism as total violence—not just a political system but an existential negation of humanity.
Colonialism, he argued, reduces colonized people to silence and submission, while legitimizing itself through cultural and racial contempt. Fanon’s insights resonate with the apartheid regime in South Africa (1948–1994), which institutionalized racial domination as a political economy.
Colonial violence was both material and symbolic—destroying identities, dismantling cultures, and reshaping subjectivities. From the Americas to Africa to Asia, systematic exploitation and extermination were justified under the banner of “progress.”
4. The Continuity of Colonialism: Mbembe, Quijano, and Neo-Colonial Structures
Colonialism did not end with independence. According to Achille Mbembe (2001) and Aníbal Quijano (2000), its power structures reorganized under new forms. Quijano coined the term “coloniality of power” to describe the persistence of racial, epistemological, and economic hierarchies established during colonialism.
These hierarchies are perpetuated by institutions like the IMF and World Bank, and by former colonial powers like France, which maintains asymmetric “cooperation” with its ex-colonies. Economist Jason Hickel notes that Africa has lost over $1 trillion in illicit financial outflows since 1980—33 times more than it received in aid.
This reveals how globalization often acts as a new colonialism, where debt, austerity, and neoliberal reforms impose dependency rather than liberation.
5. Europe’s Perspective and “Africa-Plus Summits”
Modern summits such as EU–Africa, France–Africa, and China–Africa reproduce symbolic inequalities inherited from colonialism. These forums frame Africa as needing integration into “global values” of markets, security, and development—defined by the center, not the periphery.
As Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2007) notes, such discourse ignores historical responsibility and avoids discussions of reparations, restitution of stolen heritage, or epistemic sovereignty.
6. Imperial Apologists: Kipling, Ferry, and the “Civilizing Logic”
European intellectuals legitimized empire through discourse. Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden” (1899) presented colonialism as a “sacrificial duty” toward the “savage.” Likewise, Jules Ferry declared in 1884: “The superior races have a right, because they have a duty, to civilize the inferior races.”
These justifications drew on Social Darwinism, racial science, and imperial universalism to provide ideological cover for conquest and domination.
7. Historical Data on Colonial Genocide
The rhetoric of “civilization” translated into catastrophic demographic outcomes:
7.1 The Transatlantic Slave Trade
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Between the 16th and 19th centuries, 12.5 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic.
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Around 1.8 million died during the Middle Passage.
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Destinations included Brazil (4.9 million), the Caribbean (4.5 million), and North America (388,000).
7.2 The Genocide of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas
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Indigenous populations declined from 70–100 million in 1492 to 5–10 million by the 19th century.
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Examples: the Trail of Tears (1830s), with over 60,000 forced relocations, and the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890), where 300 Lakota Sioux were killed.
7.3 Portuguese Colonial Wars (1961–1974)
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Approximately 50,000 soldiers killed, plus countless civilian deaths in Angola and Mozambique.
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Forced labor in Angola caused mortality rates of up to 40% in some regions.
7.4 The Indian Subcontinent
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Amritsar Massacre (1919): British troops killed over 1,000 civilians.
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Bengal Famine (1943): 3–4 million deaths due to British policies under Winston Churchill. Food exports continued even during famine; Churchill dismissed Indian suffering, remarking, “Indians breed like rabbits.”
Scholars such as Madhusree Mukerjee (Churchill’s Secret War, 2010) and Amartya Sen (Poverty and Famines, 1981) demonstrate that this was not a natural disaster but a deliberate, avoidable catastrophe.
Conclusion
Colonialism should not be seen as an unfortunate deviation from history but as a structural foundation of Western modernity—built on genocide, slavery, and exploitation.
Its legacy persists in global inequalities, cultural domination, and epistemic subjugation. To recognize colonialism as the greatest genocide in human history is not political exaggeration but a necessary act of historical justice and a foundation for genuine postcolonial thought.
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