Who are the forerunners or Colonial Agents ?

THE COMING OF COLONIAL AGENTS



Before colonialism the colonial agents came to Africa to prepare her for colonization. Agents of colonialism was the individual groups of people including explorers, missionaries and traders through which their activities aided colonialists in the process of colonizing Africa.




1. Explorers

This was the first group of European to come in Africa, its major interest being geographical discoveries. Some of explorers were sent by societies like Royal Geographical Society for instance in 1856 sent two officers i.e. Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke. Another was London Missionary Society that sent Dr. David Livingstone and later Henry Morton Stanley.




2. Missionaries

This was the second group of colonial agents which had several organized societies which operated in East Africa between 1840 to 1914. The first arrivals were German Missionaries working for the Church Missionary Society, they were Johan Krapf (1884), Johan Rebman (1886) and Johan Erhad (1849). In 1863 a group of Holy Ghost Father (French) arrived from Re-Union and established a station at Bagamoyo. What to note here is that, it is from those early centres that Christian missionaries started expanding their influence throughout East Africa and in so doing they ended up acting as agents/forerunners of colonialism.




3. Traders and Chartered Companies.

The third agent of colonization was the traders and trading companies. European traders came in large numbers to operate in Africa following the successful missions of both Explorers and Christian missionaries. The most active traders including British and German. Some traders formed small trading companies and associations to operate in Africa such as the Livingstone Central African Trading Company founded by James Stevenson in 1878.




Also William Macknon, another Scottish formed British Indian Steam Navigation Company and in 1888, Macknon secured a charter for his company. Under the royal Charter the name of the company changed to Imperial British East African Company (IBEACO).