British Colonies in Africa

British Colonies in Africa

Subject : History

Context : Amid the collective outpouring of grief and mourning after the demise of Queen Elizabeth II, several discordant voices have sought accountability for the violent legacy left behind in Africa by the British until about the middle of the 20th century.

Concept :

• Members of the Nandi group, an East African ethnic tribe based in Kenya, recently urged Britain to return the severed head of Koitalel Arap Samoei, a spiritual leader who was killed in 1905 when the country was under Britain’s colonial rule.
• Samoei had led his community during a prolonged rebellion against the British. He was killed by a British officer named Richard Meinertzhagen, who lured him to a meeting to discuss truce, but shot him instead.
• Samoei’s head was then severed from his body and shipped to England as a trophy, according to widely recorded testimony.
• Britain controlled much of the continent of Africa for nearly a century before its empire collapsed in the middle of the 1900s.

Important British Colonies in Africa

• Sudan, The Republic of the South Sudan, Lesotho, Botswana, kenya, uganda, Somalia, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Malawi.