Question
SAQ 2
"Africa shall be redeemed. Her children shall perform this mighty work. Her swamps shall be
drained; her deserts shall be watered by canals; her forests shall be reduced to firewood. Her
children shall do all this.
In this amiable task, they may possibly suffer and even perish. We must learn to look on this result
with composure. It illustrates the beneficent law of Nature that the weak must be devoured by the
strong.
But a grateful posterity will cherish their memories. When the future British residents of Timbuktu
have their tea gardens in the oases of the Sahara; when hotels and tour guides are established at the
sources of the Nile; when it becomes fashionable to go yachting on the lakes of the Great African
Plateau; when European noblemen build their country houses in Central Africa, complete with
elephant parks and hippopotamus ponds, then young English ladies sitting in their hammocks under
palm trees will read with tears in their eyes The Last of the Africans,* and the Niger will become as
romantic a river as any in Europe."
*an allusion to the 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans by United States writer James Fenimore
Cooper
Winwood Reade, British explorer, Savage Africa, book published in 1864
a) Explain ONE ideology that the author uses to justify imperialism in the passage.
b) Explain ONE way in which the historical situation of the late nineteenth century might have
affected the vision of Africa's future outlined by the author in the third paragraph.
Answer
a) The author uses Social Darwinism to justify imperialism in the passage. He argues that the weak must be devoured by the strong, and that it is the natural law of beneficent nature. This ideology was used to justify the domination of one race over another, and it was believed that the superior race had the right to rule over the inferior race.
b) The historical situation of the late nineteenth century, which was characterized by intense competition among European powers for colonies and resources, might have affected the vision of Africa's future outlined by the author in the third paragraph. The author's vision of Africa's future is based on the assumption that European powers will continue to dominate and exploit Africa, and that Africa will become a playground for European noblemen and tourists. However, this vision ignores the possibility that African nations might resist European domination and exploitation, and that they might develop their own economies and societies.