Page 85 - A People Called Afrika

Colonization

WISHING, in a spirit of good and mutual accord, to reg-
ulate the conditions most favorable to the development of
trade and civilization in certain regions of Africa, and to
assure to all nations the advantages of free navigation on the
two chief rivers of Africa flowing into the Atlantic Ocean;

BEING DESIROUS, on the other hand, to obviate the mis-
understanding and disputes which might in future arise from
new acts of occupation (prises de possession) on the coast
of Africa; and concerned, at the same time, as to the means
of furthering the moral and material wellbeing of the native
populations;

HAVE RESOLVED, on the invitation addressed to them
by the Imperial Government of Germany, in agreement with
the Government of the French Republic, to meet for those
purposes in Conference at Berlin, and have appointed as
their Plenipotentiaries, to wit: [Names of plenipotentiaries
included here.] Who, being provided with full powers, which
have been found in good and due form, have successively
discussed and adopted:” (source: online)

It then goes on to list the things that the 14 nations agreed
to, far away from Afrika’s shores, permanently altering her
trajectory. They made a point of including the furthering
of the moral and material wellbeing of native populations,
which included ending slavery into this document… but
you have to know that those were the public relations as-
pects of the act, designed to gain them popular support for
the mission they had already made up their minds to un-
dertake, as illustrated in these quotes highlighted by Dr.
Etim Okon in a 2014 paper published in The EU Journal:

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