The Power of Resistance in Africa
Event : BIEA Research & Policy Series
Speaker: Prof Toyin Falola – Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities; University Distinguished Teaching Professor University of Texas
Registration
- In-person: https://biea.ac.uk/events/the_power_of_resistance_in_africa/in-person_attendance
- Online: https://biea.ac.uk/events/the_power_of_resistance_in_africa/online_attendance
Much of the prevailing discourse surrounding Africa colonial past remains heavily tethered towards a narrative that there was a rapid imposition of European imperial authority upon their arrival. Such accounts frequently oversimplify the nature of colonial domination by portraying it as an unchallenged and immediate exercise of power over a weakened native population. However, this study posit that such portrayal fails to account for a critical dimension of African historiography. It usually fails to capture the formidable resistance mounted by African societies in the face of colonial encroachment. From the very moment European powers set foot on African soil, there was an immediate resistance. Across the continent, African communities rose in defense of their autonomy, institutions, and way of life. This study conceives that some of these efforts did not immediately translate into the halting of colonial expansion, yet they remain significant both in symbolic and historical terms. It was in fact such efforts that laid the ideological groundwork for subsequent liberation movements. It was the legacy of early resistance that later translated into anti-colonial struggles later in the 20th century. This study, therefore, undertakes a critical exploration of the “power of resistance in Africa”. This study does not seek to understand the power of resistance merely as a historical footnote, but as an important force that has been critical in shaping the modern African state. The goal is to understand this spirit of defiance that has been central to Africans consciousness. In doing so, this study also re-centers the sacrifices of those who stood firm against imperial domination and reminds us that the present is inextricably bound to those acts of defiance that defined the continent’s past.
Keyword: Resistance, Africa, Colonialism, African Resistance, African States.
