Abstract
Among British enthusiasts for a more active West African policy, the theme of induced culture change was a constant feature. Many civilizations—perhaps most—have overvalued their own way of life and undervalued that of their neighbors. This attitude was one of long standing in the Western tradition, and it increased in force throughout the nineteenth century; but it was accompanied by another, less common belief. Most Europeans thought their own way of life represented values of universal application. Barbarians might therefore acquire “civilization.” Even more, for some Europeans, to carry civilization to the barbarians was not only possible, it was desirable. It might even become a moral duty.1
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Footnotes
See, for example: Alfred, “On the Most Rational Means of Promoting Civilization in Barbarous States,” The Philanthropist, I, 8–21 (1811).
African Institution, Reports of the Committee of the African Institution, 18 vols. (London, 1807–1824), I (1807), 27–28.
Translator’s note in S. M. X. Golberry [S. M. X. de Golbéry], Travels in Africa Performed During the Years 1785, 1786, and 1787, 2 vols. (London, 1803), II, 262.
Sir William Lawrence, Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man (London, 1819), pp. 500–1; Edward William White to African Committee, Cape Coast, 30 April 1814, T 70/36 (also printed version in PP, 1817, vi [431], p. 46).
Sierra Leone Company, Account of the Colony of Sierra Leone from Its First Establishment in [sic] 1793 … (London, 1795), p. 80.
Sierra Leone Company, Substance of the Report of the Court of Directors of the Sierra Leone Company to the General Court …, 7 vols. (London, 1791–1808), V, 49–54, (report for 1801); Evidence of William Greaves, Parliamentary Committee on Sierra Leone (1802), PP, 1803–1804, v (24), p. 37;
M. C. P. Easmon, “Sierra Leone Doctors,” Sierra Leone Studies, II (n. s.), 81–82 (June, 1956).
C. Fyfe, A History of Sierra Leone (London, 1962), pp. 127–47.
C. P. Groves, The Planting of Christianity in Africa, 4 vols. (London, 1948–1958), I, 278–79.
Philip Beaver, African Memoranda (London, 1805), p. 396 n.
Robert Thorpe, A View of the Present Increase of the Slave Trade (London, 1818), p. 96.
H. Kilham, African Lessons (London, 1823), ii;
T. Hodgkin, A Letter from Dr. Hodgkin to Hannah Kilham, On the State of the Colony of Sierra Leone (Lind-field, 1827), pp. 6–7; Adolphus Back to Thomas Hodgkin, 19 July 1831, ASP, C 112/2;
W. Singleton and others, Report of the Committee Managing a Fund Raised by Some Friends for the Purpose of Promoting African Instruction; with an Account of a Visit to the Gambia and Sierra Leone (London, 1822).
Dr. Thomas Coke to the King of the Foulahs, quoted in M. J. Holland, Viscountess Knutsford, Life and Letters of Zachary Macaulay (London, 1900), pp. 116–17.
For Bickersteth’s report on Sierra Leone see African Institution, Reporis of the Committee, Eleventh Report (1817), p. 126–52.
See G. A. Robertson, Notes on Africa … with Hints for the Melioration of the Whole African Population (London, 1819), p. 18;
A. G. Laing, Travels in the Timanee, Kooranko, and Soolima Countries in Western Africa (London, 1825), PP. 391–98.
H. Murray, Enquiries Historical and Moral Respecting the Character of Nations and the Progress of Society (Edinburgh, 1808), pp. 422–23; M. Renner to E. Bickersteth, Bashia, 1 May 1816, CMSA, CA 1/E5.
Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Postumus, or Pure has His Pilgrimes (Glasgow, 1906), XIX, 232.
See R. H. Pearce, The Savages of America: A Study of the Indian and the Idea of Civilization (Baltimore, 1953).
Murray, Enquiries, pp. 421–24; Robertson, Notes on Africa, pp. 15–16; Edinburgh Review, VIII, 442–50 (July, 1806); T. E. Bowdich, The British and French Expeditions to Teembo, with Remarks on Civilization in Africa (Paris, 1821), pp. 7–9;
Sir Neil Campbell, “Memorandum on the Gold Coast,” November 1826, SLA, Gold Coast Misc., 1826–1827; Alfred, “Means of Promoting Civilization,” pp. 16–17.
African Institution, Reports of the Committee, I (1807), 44; African Committee to the Lords of Treasury, 29 April 1812, T 70/32.
John Adams, Sketches Taken During Ten Voyages to Africa, Between the Years IJ86 and 1800 … (London, 1822), p. 73.
African Institution, Reports of the Committee, II (1808), 37, This anonymous project was published by the African Institution, but not necessarily with the full support of the committee.
African Institution, Reports of the Committee, II (1808), 37.
J. Corry, Observations upon the Windward Coast of Africa …. made in the Years 1805–1806 (London, 1807), pp. 81–84.
See R. S. Rattray, Ashanti Law and Constitution (London, 1929), pp. 47–55 for the Ashanti variant of these practices.
Henry Meredith, An Account of the Gold Coast of Africa … (London, 1812), p. 212.
P. Thompson to C. Jenkinson, 6 June 1810, CO 267/28. See L. G. Johnson, General T. Perronet Thompson, 1783–1869 (London, 1957), pp. 38 ff.
The following tracts are a sample of the controversy: Robert Thorpe, A Letter to William Wilberforce Containing Remarks on the Reports of the Sierra Leone Company (London, 1815);
Z. Macaulay, A Letter to His Highness the Duke of Gloucester … (London, 1815);
African Institution, Special Report of the Directors of the African Institution, Made at the Annual General Meeting, on 12th of April, 1815, Respecting the Allegations … by R. Thorpe (London, 1815);
Robert Thorpe, A Reply “Point by Point” to the Special Report of the Directors of the African Institution, and of the Controversy with Dr. Thorpe, with some Reasons against the Registry of Slaves in the British Colonies (London, 1816); “African Institution and the Slave Trade,” Anti-Jacobin Review, L, 139–45 (January, 1816);
J. Marryat, Thoughts on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and Civilization of Africa, with Remarks on the African Institution, and an Examination of the Report of their Committee, recommending a General Registry of Slaves in the British West-India Islands (London, 1816). The sequence of titles shows the way in which the controversy jumped the Atlantic and ended as a part of the literature pro and contra slavery in the West Indies.
See, for example, J. MacQueen, Geographical and Commercial View of Northern Central Africa …, (Edinburgh, 1821), pp. 264–84;
J. G. Jackson, Account of Timbuctu and Houssa (London, 1820), pp. 251–54.
J. Montgomery, “The West Indies,” Poetical Works, 4 vols. (London, 1828), I, 63–64. First published 1807.
M. F. Lindley, The Acquistion and Government of Backward Territories in International Law (London, 1926), pp. 11–18;
William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Law (Washington, 1941), p. 53 (Introduction, Sec. 4). First published 1765–1769; Emer de Vattel, Le droit de gens, 3 vols. (Washington, 1916), III, 37–38 (Bk. I, Ch.7).
The African Committee on the Gold Coast spent something more than one hundred pounds a year at the larger forts and as little as thirty or forty at the smaller ones. About half the total went to ground rent, the rest being distributed according to need—for keeping paths open to the interior, to important men in the town outside the fort, or in small sums to the headmen of neighboring fishing villages in return for flying the British flag and maintaining a friendly posture. (S. Cock to Lords of the Treasury, 22 September 1820, printed in J. J. Crooks, Records Relating to the Gold Coast Settlements from 1750 to 1874 (Dublin, 1923), p. 128.
African Institution, Reports of the Committee, I (1807), 56–60; Robertson, Notes on Africa, pp. 21–22; Gen. Charles Turner to Bathurst, 20 December 1825, CO 267/66.
A. G. Laing, Travels in the Timanee, Kooranko, and Soolima Countries in Western Africa (London, 1825), pp. 387–98;
T. E. Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee … (London, 1819), pp. 341–43.
African Institution, Reports of the Committee, II (1808), appendix, pp. 33–41.
Vasco da Gama [Pseud, for J. G. Jackson], Blackwood’s Magazine, IV, 652–53 (March 1819); Jackson, Account of Timbuctoo and Houssa, pp. 247–71.
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Curtin, P.D. (1964). Techniques for Culture Change. In: The Image of Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00539-0_11
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