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The power he could wield over his fellow Africans caused the Belgian government to imprison Kimbangu because they feared him as threat to their power.  Although at first Christianity helped the white colonials spread though Europe and gain control over the native tribes and land, the Africans began to use Christianity as a building block for their independence, equality and freedom.

Christianity also became a stepping stone for the education of the Africans.  The missionaries took African youths under their wings and brought the youths up with European morals and values that intermixed with the almost inherent African ones.  (Oyono, p. 13)  Many of the Christian-Africans were taught to read the Bible.  Some of promising youths were even sent to “training college for teachers” so they could come back and teach the other African students.   (Achebe, p182)  Another practice of Assimilation became teaching the Africans to read and write in European languages.

Schools themselves were used to keep the white colonials in power.  Many white colonials believed a good strategy would be “to reinforce the subservient status of squatters through controlled social services, including an educational infrastructure.”  (Kanogo, p. 92)  If the white colonials controlled what the young Africans were taught, they could create a school curriculum that influenced the students to become subservient farmers and laborers for the white colonial settlers.  In regards to native African squatters, “the settlers began to realize that the presence of a school on the farm was in itself an inducement to laborers.”  (Kanogo, p. 82)  Some settlers sold the idea of native Africans being able to educate their children as a means to draw workers to their farms.

Teaching the Africans to read and write created an educated lower class for the white colonials.  These colonials made their living as landowners, government officials and merchants, yet they “needed semi-literate or semi-skilled Africans as clerks, farm overseers, carpenters, masons and fitters” to keep their costs low in order to have a profitable economy.  (Kanogo, p. 79)  Without these valuable educated Africans, the white colonials may have had to hire Asian or other non-African laborers who were more expensive and “posing a major threat to the European community by challenging its political and economic supremacy.”  (Kanogo, p. 79)  Not only were African workers cheaper, these educated Africans were reliable tax payers for the colonial governments.

As well as educating the youth, many colonials believed that educated chiefs “have been remarkable men” in their rule within the white colonial hierarchy.  (Lugard, pp. 232)  An educated chief not only communicates and understands his people well, but also the wishes of the colonial power.  This makes him an unequaled as a middleman between the colonial government and the native tribes.  If a chief respected and admired the white colonials culture, then he would make his African subjects as European as possible.  When the Africans were fascinated with European culture, they were more likely to accept colonial racial hierarchies.

As with Christianity, the positive benefits of teaching Africans to read and write became overshadowed by the resulting negative consequences for white colonial powers.  Through their education many Africans became even more aware of the inequality and injustice that existed in Africa under the white colonial governments.  Educated Africans began to start schools of their own where they were “combining purely educational matter with political issues such as land alienation and population pressure.”  (Kanogo, p. 80)  Other educated Africans like Jomo Kenyatta began political movements such as his Kikuyu Central Association which fought for the rights of people through protest who lived in the area of present day Kenya.  (lecture, 1/29/02)  Kenyatta, like many others, wrote books to awaken the Europeans who still lived in Europe of the injustices occurring in Africa.  Even some forward-thinking white colonials were using their own schools to instill a sense of equality within the local African youths.  White colonials officials who wanted to keep their power tried to keep these forward-thinking white colonial teachers from “telling them [the Africans] that they are as good as we are [the Europeans].”  (Oyono, p. 51)  Although at first teaching Africans to read and write and using them as blue-collar laborers helped white colonials gain power, schools also created Africans who were aware of and unwilling to live under the oppressive colonial governments.

A third main practice of assimilation was the granting the right of French citizenship to thousands of Africans within France’s Four Communes of Senegal: St. Louis, Gorée, Dakar and Rufisque.  In one Rufisque newspaper article a French-African describes how his grandfather “died…on this European battlefield” which shows the Senegalese “pride in being French.”  (Delavignette)   Since France assimilated these people into their culture, they were willing to work within the white colonial French system and fight for their way of life.  The French brought up the young Senegalese boys teaching them the French language, broad educational curriculum and French culture.  This schooling created a class of educated French Muslims in Senegal called the évolués.  (lecture, 1/17/01)  These young men were used by the white French colonial government throughout Senegal as clerks and government officials.  Delavignette stated “They share with us a desire for culture and learning, a devotion to their mother country, and the feeling of creating a larger France in Africa.”  (Delavignette)  France had assimilated the Four Communes and gained thousands of workers, soldiers and loyal French citizens.

Unfortunately for the French, as with African conversion to Christianity and schooling, granting the Senegalese rights of citizenship also began to break down the white colonial power assimilation had once supported.  “Assimilation can be mocked and denounced.  It certainly makes the running of bureaucracy more difficult in that it less authoritarian.”  (Delavignette)  By granting Africans rights as French citizens and giving power to the people, the French ultimately put the power in the hands of the overwhelming larger black French-African population.  The évolués became unsatisfied with their lack of representation within the local colonial government, as white French held all the positions of power.