140 years ago, European powers got together here in Berlin to decide on the rules of engagement as they claimed territory in Africa.
Germany’s Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, called the Berlin Conference at the request of Belgium’s King Leopold II, who wanted the Congo Basin as his private property. The so-called Scramble for Africa by the Europeans – often led to disputes between them. But the Berlin conference provided a platform to iron out those issues.
However no indigenous African representatives attended the negotiations. African leaders had no say in what was happening to their homelands. Meanwhile, the Berlin Conference gave a boost to the European seizure of African land and resources, blatantly disregarding African sovereignty – and leading to the reshaping of the continent’s borders, societies, and future.
Chapters:
0:00 How did one conference shape a continent’s destiny?
5:13 Dipo Faloyin, Author of ‘Africa is not a country’
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