"CIVILIZATION" ON TRIAL: THE COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL STATE IN AFRICA

(. . .) the colonizer resorts to racism (. . .) racism encapsulates and symbolizes the essence of the relationship between colonizer and colonized (...) a paternalist is a person who pretends to be generous, once racism and inequality have been established.5

Colonialism was based on violence and corruption. For example, chiefs were given pots and pans, brandy, or jewelry in return for signing treaties. Cruelty informed all aspects of colonial rule. Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch provides a detailed account of the mission of enquiry on alleged atrocities committed by the Concessionary Companies in the French Congo. Led by the famed explorer Savorgnan de Brazza, the mission (April-September 1905) found that in Ubangi-Chari (Central African Republic), the Société de la Lobaye's agents had, in the village of Nguakombo, rounded up 58 women and 10 children as 'hostages' to force the men to produce their quota of natural rubber; 45 women and 2 children later died for lack of proper care. In FortSibut (Krebedje), the mission found another concentration camp comprising 119 women and children taken hostage during a raid in Uhame-Nana. De Brazza concluded that in that particular region, taking women as hostages was a common practice to force the men to provide their quota of rubber, to submit to porter requisitions, or to pay their taxes in kind.6

In colonial Kenya, the British put members of the Kikuyu ethnic group, who were fighting for land and freedom, in concentration camps. Between 300,000 and 400,000 people died as a result. Work camps where freedom fighters were held in inhumane conditions were set up throughout the country. Men were sexually assaulted "sodomized with bottles and rifle barrels, and castrated."7 Eggs and broken bottles were stuffed into women's vaginas. Women suffered on two levels: as freedom fighters, and as a result of their gender:

When they still could not get information from me they decided to put pepper inside my private parts. We were ordered to lie down in the open area inside the Ruthigit post. No one held us down, but guards stood over us with guns. We were ordered to separate our legs with our knees raised. Failure to comply invited ruthless beating. Then a bottle full of a mixture of pepper and water was inserted into my birth canal and the contents emptied, inside of me, it is impossible to imagine the torment. The burning could be felt everywhere, in the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and all over. It happened that the previous day, the day we were arrested, a lady named Watiri had been given the same treatment, only her mixture had been made from pepper and petrol. It was fortunate that the vehicle had left by the time my mixture was being prepared. After this treatment I was later carried to where Watiri was still lying groaning in agony and vomiting.8

Watiri died. Women were raped repeatedly by African and British guards.

All colonial powers used capital punishment. For example, although the guillotine was banned in France it was still used in the colonies. Imperialism masks itself under different guises. For example, in Africa it had a "mission" which was to "civilize" the people. This disguise masked its real purpose, which was extraction of raw materials, use of Africans as laborers as well as markets for European goods. Each country produced the goods needed by the colonial power; for example in the case of East Africa: coffee, tea, peanuts, and sisal. West African countries produced cocoa, coffee, peanuts, and oil. Central Africa-rubber while oil, and other natural resources were produced in North Africa. In South Africa, Britain used its minerals to improve its own standing in the world economy and to develop its national economy. Colonial powers used forced labor in all these countries.