Ruth Nhere
It has been 40 years since this article was published in “The African Communist”, No. 98, Third Quarter, 1984, and it is still relevant to this day. The analysis of the Imperialists’ Berlin Conference of 1884 resonates with the challenges that continental Africa in general, and South Africa, in particular, is grappling with. Principally, it will only be on the basis of the understanding of the revelations contained in this article that we may be able to appropriately address such challenges.
Imperialism and Africa
This year the world is marking the 100th anniversary of the Berlin conference at which the imperialist countries divided the continent of Africa and shared the loot amongst themselves. This conference, formally summoned by Portugal but actually initiated by Germany and France, lasted from November 15, 1884, until February 26, 1885. Fourteen European countries and the United States took part in the proceedings. The ‘General Act’ produced by the conference contained clauses which aimed to lay down the rules governing Europe’s ‘scramble for Africa’. What created the need for such an accord?
It was the maverick King Leopold of Belgium who was posing the most serious obstacle to the consolidation of territories already held by the major European powers. With the Congo basin under his control, any plan by others to create a unified African Empire was bound to fail. As sovereign master of this huge territory, which separated the west
