60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

colonialism and genocide 83
Evans’ concept of Indigenocide is a useful and adequate framework for
the analysis of mass violence in colonial Africa because it takes the destruction
of indigenous cultures and religions into account and emphasises
the dehumanisation of the colonised by the colonisers. It is thus a
suitable methodological instrument for a comparative study of colonial
mass violence. Nonetheless, some of its features are problematic: ‘First
people’ is a political rather than a scientifi c concept. Especially in Africa,
where no written documentation about pre-colonial migration fl ows
is available, the identifi cation of ‘fi rst peoples’ is highly problematic and
contested. What is more, the introduction of a new term or concept
suggests that the murder or permanent crippling of indigenous societies
would not count as a full genocide. Again, the problem of hierarchisation
is at hand. Finally, the establishment of new concepts and terms for
the study and categorisation of colonial mass violence is not necessary
if we resort to Raphael Lemkin’s original framework that puts a strong
emphasis on the cultural dimension of genocide.
Raphael Lemkin’s original concept of genocide and
its application to European colonialism in Africa
One of the driving forces of colonial expansion was the European
powers’ desire to extend their economic infl uence and to control and
dominate as many regions as possible within a capitalist-style economy.
Regions located at the periphery of the world system such as
Africa were seen as a reservoir for important raw materials. And the
indigenous populations were determined to plant, extract or process
these raw materials as cheap labourers and to consume low-grade European
products. In their racist sense of superiority, European colonisers
did not consider this system as exploitation but as modernisation
of alleged backward societies (Peterson 2005).
European conquest and settlement in Africa did not inevitably lead to
the expulsion and/or annihilation of the natives as it was the case with
‘New England type’ settler colonies in Northern America and Australia.
7 The main reason why Europeans normally did not envisage exterminating
or expelling the African population in large parts or even as
a whole was that they were dependent on indigenous manpower. The
colonisers’ aim was to gain control over African land and labour at the
same time. And the securing of indigenous labour was crucial since ‘the
dark continent’ was all but an attractive destination for emigrants. There
7 Diff erent types of settler colonies can be distinguished: ‘New England type’, where the
settlers are not dependent on native labour; ‘African type’, where settlers and planters
rely on cheap indigenous labour; and ‘Caribbean type’, where slaves are imported
from outside (Osterhammel 2001: 18).