TYPES OF COLONALISM
The systems used included the Direct Rule, the Indirect Rule and the Settler Rule.
Direct rule
Imperialist
countries that established a home base in a claimed territory used the
direct rule method. With direct rule, conquering nations transplanted
their language, culture and system of government into a subordinate
territory. The government overtly attempted to "civilize" the indigenous
people by undermining their traditional institutions. Native
inhabitants who wished to succeed under direct rule had to adopt the
values and lifestyle of the ruling power. They had centralized
administrations, usually in urban centres that stressed policies of
assimilation. Direct rule also used the strategy of "divide and rule" by
implementing policies that intentionally weakened indigenous power
networks and institutions. The people in the colonies were under direct
rule of the mother country. The natives of the colony were like
inhabitants of the mother country. This gave them many more
opportunities, but the pressure to be "civilized" ruined the original
culture. The French, Belgians, Germans, and Portuguese are considered to
have used this model in governing their African colonies.
Indirect rule
This
system of governance used indigenous African rulers within the British
colonial administration, although they often maintained an inferior
role. By this system, the day-to-day running of government and
administration of areas was left in the hands of traditional rulers, who
gained prestige and the stability and protection afforded by the
British, at the cost of losing control of their
external affairs, and often of taxation, communications, and other
matters, usually with a small number of European "advisors" effectively
overseeing the government of large numbers of people spread over
extensive areas. As a result, indirect rule increased divisions
between ethnic groups and gave powers to certain people who had never
had it before in pre-colonial history. The mother country rules the
colony from far away, often through a native leader. This might seem
like the nicer way, but it created great differences between the races.
The white treated the inhabitants of the colonies as tools for their
Business.
Settler rule
Settler rule refers
to the type of colonialism in southern Africa in which European
settlers imposed direct rule on their colonies. Settler colonies
differed from other colonies in Africa in that a significant number of
immigrants from Europe settled in these colonies. These immigrants or
settlers were not like missionaries or European colonial officials. Just
like early European immigrants to the United States and Canada,
settlers in Africa planned to make the colonies their permanent home. In
order to thrive in the colonies, settlers demanded special political
and economic rights and protection. Security and prosperity for the
settlers depended on economic exploitation and political oppression of
the African population that vastly outnumbered the settlers. Settler
colonies were found primarily in southern Africa including the colonies
of South Africa, Southern and Northern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe and Zambia),
Angola, Mozambique, and South West Africa (Namibia). Settlers from
Holland, Britain, Germany, and Portugal colonized these areas. In
addition, settler rule was practiced in Kenya, a British colony in East
Africa, and in Algeria, a French colony in North Africa.
