Page 21 - Afrika Must Unite

6 AFRICA MUST UNITE
attacks by other Europeans who wanted to plunder gold and
ivory, and to share in the rich slave trade.
It was the Portuguese who, in the fifteenth century, discovered
gold in the area between the Ankobra and Volta rivers and
called the country M ina, ‘the mine’, or the ‘Gold Coast*. They
were the first to build fortified warehouses along our shores for
the protection of their trade. But soon Spanish, English and
Dutch ships also began to explore the Guinea Coast, as they
came to call it, and more forts were established. Towards the end
of the sixteenth century the Gold Coast was exporting about ten
thousand slaves a year, and more than half the trade was in
British hands. In 1808, Britain stopped trading in slaves, and in
1874 the Gold Coast colony was established, thirty years after
the ‘Bond’ signed by our chiefs gave Britain her first real political
influence in the country.
The notorious ‘scramble for Africa5 began in the last quarter
of the nineteenth century. At that time, Great Britain, France,
Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy embarked on a
race for colonies. In 1881, France extended her colonial sway
over Tunis, and in the following year Britain secured control
over Egypt. In 1884, the first German colony was established at
Angra Pequena on the coast of South-West Africa. The occupa­
tion of Togoland and the Cameroons in West Africa followed. A
French force seized the territory between the Cameroons and
the Portuguese colony of Angola, which became the French
Congo. In 1894 the tricolour was hoisted over Timbuktu,
Dahomey and the Ivory Coast. The whole of the western Sudan
was soon occupied by France. In 1885 a protectorate was estab­
lished over M adagascar.
Then ensued the Anglo-French jealousy which culminated in
a crisis in 1898 when the occupation of the Sudanese post of
Fashoda threatened to upset Britain's colonial position within
that area. W ar between France and Britain appeared to be
imminent, but the French force withdrew. France then turned
her attention to Morocco. There she came up against German
ambitions. A conference of colonial powers was called in
Algeciras in 1906, with the result that French and Spanish
claims to interfere in M oroccan internal affairs were recognized.
In 1876 the Congo International Association was formed