Metamorphosis of European imperialism in Africa: Slave trade, colonial trade, and brain trade in context

Abstract

The history of Africa cannot be disconnected from the plagues of the European imperialism at different points in time. Starting with the emergence of Atlantic slave trade, imperialism persisted till the late 18^th century during the colonial era. Despite the independence of African nations in the late 19^th century, European imperialism still continued in the form of neo-colonialism. The continuity of European imperialism till this present moment attests to its dynamics and rebranding across different eras, notably the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial era. In view of this, this paper studied the dynamics of European imperialism in Africa within the historical context of 18^th century slave trade, 19th century colonial trade and the 21^st century brain trade.
Data used were obtained from secondary sources, including journals, articles, magazines, newspaper, web pages etc. Using Prebisch’s Dependency theory, the paper analysed how the modern day brain trade in Africa is emblematic of European imperialism as witnessed during the 18^th century slave trade and the 19th century colonial trade, with Africa being incorporated into the world capitalist system as a cheap supplier of labour.
The paper revealed that European imperialism in Africa is a dynamic process that has undergone different degrees of transformation or metamorphosis at different times in history, starting with the transatlantic slave trade from the 15^th to 18^th century, transcending to colonial trade from late 18^th to late 20^th century, and still manifesting in the 21^st century as brain trade. Hence, irrespective of the differences in the mechanism of enforcing European imperialism at different times or era in Africa, the article concluded that European imperialism in Africa is the same yesterday, today and forever.