Essay About Records Of The Maji Maji Uprising And G.C.K. Gwassa

Imperialism: “things Fall Apart” Compared to Primary Sources
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Imperialism: “Things Fall Apart” Compared to Primary Sources
Imperialism is the act of a larger more powerful country taking over a
smaller weaker country. Imperialism was very evident in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. Africa, an up and coming country was a
gargantuan country and just waiting to be taken over. At one point in time
the entire continent was taken over by imperialist nations. The novel
“Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe tells about the trials and
tribulations of African people and their country during imperialist times.
There are a number of primary sources that I have read that talk about
imperialism throughout Africa. This essay will be a comparison between
the primary sources I have read and the novel by Achebe.
“Records of the Maji Maji Uprising” is the first primary source dealing
with imperialism. It happened in 1905 in Tanganyika, Africa. This was one
of the first battle with early colonial reign in Africa. The Africans were told
if they applied Maji (holy water) that they would be invincible to bullets (1).
1. G.C.K. Gwassa, John Iffle, Records of the Maji Maji Uprising, Sources of Twentieth-century Global History (Copyright 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved) Pg. 14-17

This made Africans upset because of the fact that they would have to pay
taxes to the country that was imperializing them. Germany was the
country that took them over, and now they were placing taxes on the
country that was not even theirs. This relates to “Things Fall Apart”
because all the different villages had their own set of traditions and values
and as the villages all became imperialized by Great Britain everything was
new, and they had to adjust their normal lifestyles to fit that of Great
Britain. In result of imperialism, many villages and tribes fell apart,
including families started to break away as well. Imperialism as a whole
brought down Africa, and as a result was extremely detrimental to the way
of life in Africa.
Much like the United States in the 1950’s and 60’s, Africa had its fair
share of discrimination. An example from “Things Fall Apart” would be
when the white man was spotted riding a “iron horse”. Later we find out
that the horse was only a bicycle. This man was extremely threatening
towards the African people. They feared that one when one white man
comes through, there would be many more to follow. The villagers soon
track down this white man and they murder him. The Africans were correct
in assuming that there would be more white men to come. The other white
men found out what happened to their friend and became irate. They
destroyed the village, leaving absolutely nothing. This compares to one of
the primary sources I read by Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter From
Birmingham Jail” was the title. He wrote the essay as he sat in his jail cell
for leading a civil rights demonstration. He stated that he wanted racial
justice for everyone living in the United States (2). Still to this day racism