Systematic Violence and Genocide in Sub-Saharan Africa during the Colonial Era

Abstract:
     The era of modern European colonialism in Africa constituted a theater for systematic collective violence, which in numerous instances escalated to the level of ‹massacre› and ‹genocide.› These massacres were neither isolated incidents nor collateral damage of a hegemonic project; rather, they were fundamentally instrumental mechanisms for imposing control, subjugating resistance, exploiting resources, and implementing racist ideologies that deemed African lives expendable in pursuit of imperialist ambitions. Consequently, they represent instruments of colonialism that produced diverse and enduring impacts and scars.
Collective violence constitutes the cornerstone of the structure of the European colonial project in Africa. This violence was not merely an incidental instrument of control; rather, it was a systematic strategy for imposing hegemony and restructuring African societies to serve the interests of colonial powers. Analyzing this phenomenon requires deconstructing the interwoven dimensions of its causes, patterns, and the protracted catastrophic effects it engendered.
This paper aims to analyze the crime of mass massacres and deconstruct this complex phenomenon as an integral component of the colonial system’s structure, by identifying its interwoven motivations, recurrent patterns, and its enduring legacy that extends to the present day.