Page 47 - Afrika Must Unite

C H A P T E R FOUR
S O C I E T Y U N D E R C O L O N I A L I S M

T h e r e i s growing up in Ghana a generation which has no
first-hand knowledge of colonial rule. These boys and girls, born
since Independence, will find it difficult to believe that there was
a time when Africans could not walk in certain parts of every
town, unless they had business there as servants. The limitations
on our freedom, the crimes against our dignity as hum an beings,
will seem to them remote and unreal. It is cheering to think that
when they meet a European it will never occur to them to touch
the imaginary forelock, or bow in servility, as some of our older
men still do, so hard is it to break long-established habits.
The social effects of colonialism are more insidious than the
political and economic. This is because they go deep into the
minds of the people and therefore take longer to eradicate. The
Europeans relegated us to the position of inferiors in every aspect
of our everyday life. M any of our people came to accept the view
that we were an inferior people. It was only when the validity of
that concept was questioned that the stirrings of revolt began
and the whole structure of colonial rule came under attack.
Signs like n o a f r i c a n a l l o w e d , or f o r e u r o p e a n s
o n l y could at one time be seen in practically every part of
Africa. Now they are fast disappearing, though still much in
evidence in the Republic of South Africa and in Southern
Rhodesia. I can well imagine what the reaction of an English­
m an would be if he came across signs proclaiming n o b r i t o n
a l l o w e d in any part of Europe, or even in one of the newly-
independent African states. Africans, however, were expected to
put up indefinitely with such treatm ent in the land of their birth.
The colour bar, where it has operated strongly, has been
responsible for much of the bitterness, which has, in some areas,
entered into African nationalism. This is hardly surprising. But