This was my first tutorial with Dr. Hamid Reza and the second tutorial of the Current Affairs course since the beginning of the trimester. The lecturer gave us an option to choose among three topics which were: Religion and Ideology, Independence and Colonization, and the conflict in Syria. After a voting procedure, we have chosen the second topic; Independence and Colonization. After agreeing on the definition of the term ‘colonization’, we discussed the most famous colonial powers in history. Due to the time constraint, we had the option to discuss the positive impacts of colonization on the colonized countries in the world. Each student had the chance to say his or her opinion about the positive effects of colonization. I have contributed the fact that colonial powers commonly improve the infrastructure of their colonies.
After each student contributed one point to the discussion, the lecturer compared our points with those of the students who attended the class before us. Most interestingly, the results were almost the same where the two classes had the same points of few. This coincidence proved for me the fact that people have the same perceptions and experiences towards colonization and its effects on a particular country. Some of the effects which were listed, such as language and religion, have more deeply negative impacts than their positives. For example, there were countries that lost their own language and traditional values because of such effects of the colonial powers. It is worth to mention here the effect of the British protectorate in my country, Somaliland, which is 99% Muslim community. The leaders of my country at that time tried their maximum effort to reduce the effect of the British on our culture and religion, which they really succeeded to maintain. They set conditions and agreements with officials of the British to minimize their interaction with the Somaliland society. However, the worst effect of that protectorate was when they divided the territory of my country and gave a large portion to Ethiopia, a neighbouring country. Till now, the dispute of that portion of land is going on. All in all, colonial powers take resources and do harm to a country more than they give them.
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