Was European imperialism in Africa preventable?

The African Union declared 2026-2036 as the decade of reparation for the Transatlantic Slave Trade, raising the fundamental question of responsibility in history. German playwright Bertolt Brecht placed his drama „Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui“ in the gangster milieu of the USA at the beginning of last century as a reminder that Adolf Hitler could have been prevented at several stages in history.

In 1482, 11 ships, 9 Frigates an 2 transport ships with 600 soldiers and 100 craftsmen from Portugal landed at the shores of the Gold Coast. In the course of their occupation, they opened Fort Sào Jorge da Mina (Elmina Castle), Fort Santo António de Axem (Axim), Fort Sáo Francisco Xavier (Osu/Accra) and Fort Sáo Sebastliáo (Shama). Elmina around 1482 (no exact numbers available) supposedly had fewer than 10.000 inhabitants. The Portuguese left 60 soldiers in Elmina at most, times increased by more in times of conflict. They did not farm.

On their way to establish trading posts along the African coast on the route to India, the majority of the original seafarers left the Gold Coast. Portugal set foot on the shores of the Gold Coast with the intention to trade with foreign locals before exploiting the discovered minerals and, in the course of it, take the lands as colonies and to buy locals as slaves from chiefs and kings of the land or arab slave traders.

The Russian Tsar used the method of burned soil to defeat French Emperor Napoleon Bonapart assited by the severe winter, to end the French army. The Portuguese colonialists, later the Danes and British, kept Ghanaians under control with advanced weapons. The Ashanti Empire, covering most of West Africa, was ruled over by the Ashanti kings.

When the Ashanti king and his African counterparts realised the Portuguese took their lands as a colony, they could have formed a united front against the intruders. In the hinterland, in secret, they could have developed deadly weapons superior to the guns of the Portuguese. Forced by white Missionaries to study the bible and attend church services,e locals could have pretended to follow the given instructions while, in secret, following their traditional rules and beliefs. In a united effort, the kings of the lands could have used the tactic of burnt soil and asked their oppressed people to retreat into the hinterland, hiding in the bush of the Gold Coast, refusing to supply the colonialists with food crops, even poisoning their water supply, among other guerrilla tactics suitable to help and defeat a foreign unwanted force back into the sea.

In all those centuries, locals by far outnumbered the foreign unwanted invaders. Waiting to push the intruders back into the ocean caused more African blood on African soil. Battles for independence were a powerful demonstration of the will of Africans for self-determination and that clear and decisive opposition against the white men can and could have earlier borne fruit.

History must be respected in all aspects of its facts by evidence. History is an essential part of contemporary life, shaping a future yet unseen but already in the making. History in all its dimensions must be part of the African Decade of Reparation to bring justice and not leave history a ping-pong match of democratically elected African leaders with shaking heads in societies of the white man. History can be twisted and denied, but the truth can never die.