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The Igbo Women In Africa

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as the Italians had been giving away their lands. This grew their dislike for the Italian colonizers, that influenced them to help the troops by educating them about the best paths to take and also giving them an advantage by informing them about the enemy’s location. The Italians were at a disadvantage as they were not knowledgeable about the area. “Total Italian casualties amounted to over 40 per cent of the fighting force which was almost completely routed, and lost all its artillery, besides 11000 rifles” (Akpan, 1985, p. 272). This battle made a significant impact on Africa as the European powers were defeated and Ethiopia was recognized as a sovereign nation state. Emperor Menelik II also received global recognition as a brave and strong …show more content…

This type of resistance was seen in 1929 when the Aba Women’s war that took place in Southeastern Nigeria. The Igbo women organized a sequence of protests as a result of the women feeling that their economic and political independence was being threatened by taxation policies that were being imposed by the colonizers. After a period of acquiescing to colonial rule, the women did not want to put up with any more inequalities. This led them to gather at administrative offices where they protested through dance and song. The protests intensified as the women became more aggressive and damaged European colonial property. Colonial arms were ordered to put an end to the riot, this lead to the death of a number of women. This was a successful form of resistance as the protests lead to a number of warrant chiefs resigning and also caused the colonial power to withdraw the new tax that was going to be implemented. This movement was remarkable as it included only women that were armed with their anger and grievances, these protests are great examples of anticolonial and feminist movements against colonial …show more content…

It is important to note that Africans did not “acquiesce placidly in a European 'pacification'…the resistance was neither despairing nor irrational, but that it was often powered by rational and innovative ideologies” (Ranger, 1985, p. 45). Despite the number of advantages enjoyed by the Europeans, the Africans put up a fight, they were not distorted by their superiority. Whether the action of resistance was successful or not, it did not matter as in each case there was some form of improvement made. To some extent resistance worked to restore some of the divide within Africa as various ethnicities came together for a joint cause, to restore their country’s sovereignty, culture and religion by suppressing the colonial

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