At the conclusion of the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, which notoriously carved up the African continent and apportioned its territories to Europe’s imperial powers, signatories to the act highlighted education and the “material well-being of the native populations” to justify their historic power grabs.
Over the half-century or so that followed what came to be known as the “Scramble for Africa,” Europe did virtually nothing to further education on the continent and inflicted some of the worst atrocities of the modern era on Africans, as colonists raced to extract natural resources using land seizures and forced labor and implemented military conscription to fight and provide pack horse-like logistical support in Europe’s wars.
Most of what is recalled today about this terrible scramble are the arbitrary borders that created numerous economically hobbled, landlocked territories and by turns divided members of coherent ethnic groupings and thrust together people with vast
