European Imperialism In The Coming Of Pink Cheeks

European Imperialism had a dehumanizing effect on indigenous African culture. This has been a debatable topic for many years. It’s not just black and white, the European imperialists did both helpful and dehumanizing things to the indigenous Africans. Although this is a gray area it is very clear to see that the bad outweighs the good and that European imperialism dehumanized the Africans culture.

European Imperialism helped indigenous African culture to become connected with new technologies and medicines. In The Coming of Pink Cheeks It clearly says, “They had a medicine house where there were many ill people; there were good medicine men and good things were done and sick people were made well”. This shows that Europeans helped improve

In The Coming of Pink Cheeks the Indigenous Africans are told that “He has been appointed Chief of this district and he will be your mouth and our mouth. He will tell us the things that you want to say and he will tell you the things that we want to say to you. He has learned our language and our laws and he will help you to understand and keep them”. That last line is important although this “Chief” will speak for both sides. He is there to keep the Natives in line and follow the rules of the Imperialist. This is dehumanizing because the imperialists are acting as if they are stupid children and they need to be controlled and follow these new rules and language. This shows that their culture is being ignored and so are they. The dehumanization is also shown in Things Fall Apart where the Ibo are told “Your gods are not alive and cannot do you any harm…They are pieces of wood and stone.” This dehumanizes the Ibo tribe because they are being told what they believe is stupid and fake and the Whites are trying to strip them from their culture and all their

In Things Fall Apart It says “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peacefully with his gun, and when we were asleep he took the land” This shows how the Ibo were blindsided by the Europeans, when they were kind and let them stay the whites took that opportunity and stole their culture and community. Although in this book these things really happened, in the article, The Coming of Pink Cheeks it says that a pink cheek told the Kikuyu that “This great king is now your king,” he said. “And this land is all his land, though he has said that you may live on it as you are his people and he is as your father and you are as his sons.” The British literally came and stole their land from under them, they treated it as if the land was up for grabs and they didn’t think to ask or pay but told the Natives it now belonged to them. This dehumanized them because they Indigenous people were treated as part of the backdrop with no say in what happened. The land was not only stolen though, tree’s were torn down and destroyed the harvest, men were sent to fight for the pink cheeks and returned amputated if they came back at all. The Europeans destroyed every aspect they could of the lives of the Native