The Destructive Effect of Colonalism on Africa

The Destructive Effects of Colonialism in Africa

        Advances in economic wellbeing and growths in literacy rate are not the sole measures of social progress. While it can be argued that colonialism benefited Africans with respect to these dimensions of welfare, it can also be argued that colonialism impaired the overall quality of life in Africa. In Emecheta’s Joys of Motherhood, Ngugi’s Weep Not, Child and Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, the authors describe how colonialism challenged and eroded Africa’s traditional morals and values. These novels illustrate the corruptive influences colonialism had on social dynamic between family members, quality of life and gender inequality.

Colonialism had a destructive impact on the social dynamic between parents and children. In Nervous Conditions, Dangarembga describes the continuing struggles that Nyasha has when her controlling parents tries to suppress the person that she is and desires to be. Instead of allowing their daughter to grow into a confident, intelligent and sexually free woman, Babamukuru and Maiguru attempts to make her a well-behaved and subordinate girl. They take away books that they feel Nyasha should not be reading, forces their daughter to eat when she says that she is not hungry, and even uses violence to reprimand her for staying out too late with a boy. Nyasha discusses her parent's oppression by saying, “‘It’s not their fault. They did it to them too. You know they did’” (Dangarembga 200). In this quote, Dangarembga makes note that Nyasha’s parents are not to blame for their controlling demeanor, because the settlers also oppressed them during colonization. Just as the colonists took away the rights, pride and self-dignity of Nyasha’s parents, Babamukuru and Maiguru takes away the privileges and happiness of their daughter.

As a result of colonialism, men, traditionally seen as the head of the household, become emasculated in the eyes of family members. Nyasha pretends to be a settler and insults her father by calling him a “good boy, a good munt. A bloody good kaffir” (Dangarembga 200). The use of the term “boy”, which implies the bottom of social hierarchy, shows that black African men are perceived to be inferior and forced to be obedient to the white settlers. Men, who used to own land to maintain their power status, are stripped of their own land from the colonialists. Nyasha complains that “[The settlers] deprived you of you, him of him, ourselves of each other. We're groveling. Lucia for a job, Jeremiah for money. Daddy grovels to them” (Dangarembga 200). Men no longer provide the same level of security as they once did, and that the relationships in their lives suffer as a result. Likewise, in Joys of Motherhood, Cordelia states that “men here are too busy being white men’s servants to be men” (Emecheta 51). She implies that the absolute power held by the African men is no longer exists, as men are forced to sell their labor to the colonialists.

        The social changes bought by colonialism also had a corruptive influence on women’s sense of purpose and self-identity. Motherhood, which was supposed to bring great happiness and a sense of purpose, ironically became the source of Nnu Ego’s greatest sorrow. In The Joys of Motherhood, a woman’s worth is determined by her ability to bear and raise children. Only after her son’s birth does Nnu Ego begin to feel like a “real woman” (Emecheta 54). Nnu Ego’s happiness is dependent on providing for her children. She justifies her complete devotion to the role of a caretaker by appealing to its rewards: her children are expected to reciprocate such care in her old age. No matter how much pain she endures in the colonized Lagos, Nnu Ego continually reminds herself of the future benefits. As education possesses greater weight in Lagos than in the more traditional Ibuza, Nnu Ego works hard to financially provide for her children’s education with the ultimate hope of reciprocated caretaking. However, she realizes her children seem to have little concern for her wellbeing. With both sons pursuing further education abroad, Nnu Ego never receives the comfort she expected them to provide. What she had always expected to be the joys of motherhood are unfulfilled as a result of colonism. It is not difficult to imagine other traditional women who have also lost the joys of motherhood while raising their children in a colonized urban society.

It can be argued that even though Nnu Ego does not reap the rewards of motherhood, the efforts that she invested to raise her children pay off because her children were able receive good education. However, this argument falls short when it becomes clear what Africans are actually able to achieve with their education. In Nervous Conditions, Dangarembga conveys the idea that the society that introduces opportunities for a better education for Africans is the same society that limits their potential. Africans, regardless of their level of education, are treated unequally in a British society because of the color of their skin. Colonizers claim that they are willing to educate Africans to “better” their country, yet they do not accept Africans as an imperative asset within their country. The education system is broken because education does not allow Africans prospects for upward social mobility. This second-citizen treatment is unfair for Africans, especially when they know they are capable of achieving higher ambitions.