Author Archives: Jimin Yu Chun

I was excited to get Mali as my country because I already knew couple facts about its rich history. Since the early colonial ear, Mali was the powerhouse among all kingdoms of Western Africa. The symbol for its influence was the Grande Mosque which was constructed in 1280 by King Konboro. As the 26th King of Djenne, the Islamic King helped Kingdom of Mali to reach its peak by incorporating infamous Islamic scholar and opening trade routes to the east. The Grande Mosque has the wooden spars that jut out from the walls not only form part of the structure, but also support the ladders and planks used during the annual repairs. This structure really mesmerized me when I first read about it in my history book.

Another reason why I had enjoyed learning more about Mali was I love its modern music. The artist name Mali Music has very nice tracks about his country and I got to learn more about the Mali music from researching. It was always rich in culture regarding music and dance.

Another thing I love about Mali is that every Monday, the wide open area in front of the mosque is transformed into the clamorous Monday Market, which has barely changed since the days when Saharan camel caravans brought salt across the sands to the gates of Djenné. Thousands of traders and customers come from miles around, and many of these itinerant traders follow the calendar of local market days in the region’s villages, their week culminating in Djenné.

Most arrive the night before, and by 06:00 on market day traders are already staking out the best sites  It spills over into the surrounding streets, especially those to the west. It’s all the more atmospheric because it’s a local’s market, with little on sale for tourists, and stallholders are too busy hawking their wares to each other to worry about the intrusion of travelers. Put simply, this market experience is not to be missed.

Also, I remember hearing about a crisis in Africa on the news. I did not recognize which country until now. The news was actually about the coup that happened in Mali against President Toure. In March 2012, President Touré was overthrown in a coup by mutineering soldiers who said they were acting in response to the government’s response to the rebellion by the Tuaregs, nomadic insurgents of Berber and Arab descent who live in the north.. The soldiers looted the presidential palace, suspended the constitution, and implemented a curfew. The coup did not impede the rebels. In fact, days after the coup, the rebels seized the city of Timbuktu, and thus gained control over much of the northern part of the country. They declared a cease-fire on April 5. The next day, however, the rebels said they had seceded from Mali and formed an independent state, called Azawad. Although that was far as the news told me then. After doing some research the coup had ended with the threat of sanctions against them. Both side gave up their power and let a party that was not affilated with neither sides took up the presidential power.It was unfortunate to learned that a country with high cultural value and rich history was still struggling with political conflicts.

Another reason that I enjoyed learning about my country was because it has a respected soccer program that aims to produce talented soccer players. As a person that is very interested in soccer, I was surprised to find out how many players I was able to recognize from Mali’s 2014 national team roster. Players like Keita and Doumbia have made their names known by playing for famous french clubs such as Toulouse and Bastia. I also found out that they produce immense amount of talents that are often picked up by French and English clubs. But I also learned that Mali has a very close affiliation to France not just in terms of soccer but politics and economy. This is due to the close colonial relationship that shared for a long time.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, the European nations’ effort to exploit the human and natural resources of Africa became the definition of colonialism. Between 1450 and 1750 Europeans just regarded Africa as place for trade and they had settled only couple colonies. But with the industrialization booming up in Europe, bye 1850, Africa was being taken over by imperialistic powers such as Great Britain, Germany, and France. Thus, by the end of 19th century, multiple colonies existed in the continent of Africa.  However, the colonial era in the Americas started a lot earlier than African as it began during early as 16th century by countries such as Spain and Great Britain. The place was also settled permanently in order to extract natural resources of the land. Accordingly, there seems to be a great similarity between colonization of Africa and colonization of America. However, multiple historic evidences prove that they were actually completely unique.

The first main difference between the two was the difference in competitors. During the colonization of America, it was the main three powers that fought over control of the territory. Initially, it was Spain, the first country among the three to have gained national stability through Reconquista (Spanish Revolution), that started to look westward to find new trade routes. However, it was soon joined by other new nations with similar domestic peace and militaristic power; France and England. Thus it was the three that exploited much of the resources in the Americas. But, during the colonization of Africa, there was a greater competition. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, much more European nations were sufficient enough to look towards foreign inputs and outputs. Thus, countries such as Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, and Russia joined the fray of intense colonization. I believe this greatly contributed to the reason why after each colonization periods, North America created just Canada and US whereas African ended up with many countries with disorganized borders. It was easy for America because Canada had French/English influence and US just had English background when independence happened. Accordingly, the inhabitants of the Americas had similar background that allowed for them to united under that same background. However, same phenomenon could not have happened for Africa. The issue of independence was really difficult with territories because they have been controlled by various countries. It prevented Africa from cooperating and regaining its wealth compared to America’s independent countries because they all had very distinct colonial experiences. This was displayed by the aftermath of the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 where the fate of the nations in Africa was decided by the rulers, not the citizens. Since there were so many countries with difference interests and goals, the distribution of borders were careless and inconsiderate to the different backgrounds of diverse Africans. I personally think this  ignorant division of borders and territories by the Europeans led to conflicts later in our history regarding countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, and Sudan.

Another reason why the colonial experience was distinct between American and Africa was the goal and nature of it was fundamentally different. Colonialism in America began when the Europeans wanted to expand their territory to gain more trade routes. Therefore, they were interested in flourishing the new land and give support to become a self-sustaining place. This was accompanied by establishing permanent towns and cities throughout the continent. They sent their citizens to permanently settle and start new lives. Thus, people sent to colonize the Americas were to live there forever. Consequently, even after colonialism was over, the people in the Americas were able to continue living prosperously by themselves. In a way, colonialism actually helped the continent by sending more citizens that had hopes and dreams of accomplishing their new dreams.  However, Africa was faced with a different policy. Imperialistic nations were not interesting in expanding trade routes or gaining territories as much as the colonizers in America. But, they were solely interested in exploiting as much natural and human resources as possible. This meant that they were not concerned with the consequences and did not care about long-term effects that their actions could bring. Therefore, Africa was reaped heavily of its fortunes and valuables as the Europeans were only concerned with bolstering its wealth. Thus, after they have left, the citizens of Africa had very less capital to self-sustain as their human and natural property have departed away from them.

It was very compelling for me to find out how the two different aspects of colonization ended up deciding the fate of the inhabitants. Although we might think they are similar, it is evidently true that the colonialism in America and in Africa were very different regarding number of colonizers and their main policies that resulted in contrasting consequences in our history.