Why African resistance failed in many parts of East Africa

Between 1880 and 1914, despite some heroic resistance put forward by some societies in east Africa, independence was lost. Men like Kabalega, Mkwawa, Rwot Awich, Mwanga, Abushiri, Bwana Kheri and Kinji Kitile had tried to put some good resistance but they all lost miserably.

A number of factors are responsible for this predicament but military weakness, political, Economic weaknesses, social problems and Natural calamities are important to consider in analysing the factors that made African societies lose the wars. The following are the reasons for this.

Military weakness: This handicapped the African resistance wars in various ways e.g. Most African resisting communities had small unprofessional armies compared to the enemy forces, for instance, the time Mkwawa died, he had only two soldiers.

African weapons were so rudimentary compared to those of their enemies. The Africans were using bows and arrows, stones, spears, insults, witchcraft and yet the colonialists had sophisticated weapons such as maxim guns. Africans had poor and old rifles. Perhaps they had a local arms industry like that of Samoure Toure, they would have put up a better show.

African tactics were inferior because of poor training and traditionalism. But even if the had good tactics without proper arms and ammunitions, they were bound to lose the war.

The Africans lacked proper coordination and a concentrated spirit of togetherness. This was shown by fighting on different fronts and yet they had a common cause.

Other African resisting societies lacked strong leadership. Perhaps if they were all strong hearted like that of Kabalega of Bunyoro their defeat would not have been quick and total as it happened to some societies.

Political weakness: This manifested in military weakness. A poorly organised community could not definitely wage formidable resistance. Political weakness was two-fold i.e. internal and external weakness. The Africans were disunited which was so because of continuous interstate that the colonialists exploited, for example, Bunyoro against Buganda, Nandi against Masai, perhaps if these Africans were united, they would have put up a better show.

Some African leaders were incapable of leading their states to successful resistance against the imposition of colonial rule. For example, it was argued that in his last days Mwanga was disorganized.

There were succession disputes that were a source of disunity, for example, in case of Masai; it was Laibon Lenana who collaborated with the British colonialists against his rival brother Sendeyo. In Ankole, it was prince Rwakatogoro against Igumira, thus such divisions created lack of African solidarity.

Individualism in pre-colonial African societies was another factor to consider, for instance, there was no recognition of fellow African societies in face of colonial torture. It's against this background that African societies helped the colonialists to crash their fellow Africans. For example, Buganda were advising and assisting British how to colonise Bunyoro.

African struggle was betrayed by their own men. They were divided up in opinion over the strategy to use, some wished to use military force while others wanted a peaceful solution.

To overcome African resistance, the colonialists applied different methods in the process of imposition of colonial rule. Some of the methods were so tricky that the Africans did not know that they would lose their independence in the process. The other methods were so peaceful that the Africans could not resist.

Economically Africans lacked a sound economy to sustain prolonged wars of resistance. Worse still, most Africans lacked mixed economies. For this matter in case of destruction of this sector of the economy, for example, crops or livestock, the war would end. The Nandi challenged imposition of British colonial rule for eleven years partly because of their mixed economy.

There were religious differences: At the time of imposition of colonial rule, European Christian Missionaries had divided the Africans along religious lines. E.g. in Buganda the British colonialists supported the Protestants against the Catholics. Such differences only served to favour colonialism.

There was also the weakness of natural calamities that included plant, human and animal catastrophes; for example, the Masai had been hit by small pox and rinderpest The Banyankole had been hit by jigger epidemic under such circumstances. It was impossible to risk a resistance war.

The period of European colonisation of Africa was associated with serious epidemic diseases such as rinderpest, tetanus, measles, chicken pox and jiggers. Africans thought that it was Europeans who brought the disease and so were feared. With recent research, we have discovered that it is true that Europeans were making most of the disease vectors.

Also some East African states were still small in terms of political organisation that they could not face the powerful Europeans successfully.

Other decentralised societies had developed any political system that could bring them together to fight their enemies.

The level of nationalism was still very small. People were thinking in terms of small families.

Some areas were disadvantaged in the way that they lacked rugged relief.

Traditional methods of warfare undermined resistance i.e. the walls put up around the palaces were useless.

There were also social and religious weaknesses that led down the struggle. The introduction of Islam and Christianity divided the people and this partly explains why they could not come together even at that critical moment.

Missionary activities played a very important role in defeating African resistance. They created a class of African collaborators who were who helped Europeans to defeat their fellow Africans.

African false confidence in based on superstitions and traditional beliefs cannot go unmentioned. The people of Tanganyika failed in the Maji-Maji rebellion because of over dependence on magic water to protect them against German bullets.

Peaceful tactics used Europeans were very important in undermining African resistance. For example signing treaties.

The Europeans were determined take East Africa at whatever cost. They were well prepared.

In conclusion indeed African societies tried to defend their societies bur because of their social, religious, economic and political weakness, they could not do much and by 1914, and all African resistance had been brought to an end.