Book 2: The Impact and Limitations of Colonialism - Introduction

From the book: Book 2: The Impact and Limitations of Colonialism commissioned by The Department of Education

Turning Point 2 focuses on the imposition of colonialism and explores its impact on African societies. Colonialism is often viewed as an overwhelming force that devastated Africa. However, it is equally important to highlight the various ways in which Africans shaped colonialism. This is not to deny the negative impact of colonialism, but to show that its power was contested and that it transformed Africa to varying degrees over time.

The first chapter, by Jeff Peires, offers an overview of colonialism. It discusses three models that operated between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries in different parts of what later became South Africa. Peires stresses the importance of paying attention to how colonialism developed in different ways in different places, and how the specific context is important in understanding its impact and limitations. Through these models we can appreciate how different regions of contemporary South Africa were differently shaped by colonialism and the particular forms of resistance that developed in each case.

The second chapter, by Wayne Dooling, focuses on the development in the Cape of a colonial slave society, one of the models identified in Chapter 1. Dooling first considers why colonialism was a turning point, and contrasts it with other important changes in the region before the arrival of Europeans. After exploring the first encounter between African and European, the chapter turns to the development of a colonial society in the south-western Cape and its expansion into the interior. This colonial society was based on the brutal conquest and dispossession of the African indigenous populations and the creation of a slave society. In all these instances, Dooling shows how the various African and slave populations limited the seemingly overwhelming power of colonialism. This resistance was, however, more complex than a simple rejection of colonialism and slavery.

In the final chapter, by Rayda Jacobs, the focus remains on the colonial slave society that developed in the first colony at the Cape - one that fell under the Slavery and Forced Labour Model of colonialism. Jacobs examines the various ways slaves tried to maintain their humanity against the heavy odds of colonial slave power. In particular, she shows how slavery has left an important legacy to the present.