The Blood Brotherhood and Colonial Treaties and Alliances: Between Myth and Reality

What is it about?

This article is about how European explorers in the late 19th century made alliances with African rulers by exchanging blood in a ceremony called the "blood brotherhood". While Europeans thought this was a normal African custom, recent research shows that it was different from the blood brotherhood between African people. Europeans used the blood brotherhood to establish their sovereign power over African rulers by making treaties with them. The blood brotherhood was also used as a tool to showcase to a broader public how European expeditions were peaceful. This helped them to justify the treaties they made, which were often unfair to the Africans. The article explains that the blood brotherhood had many different uses, and that we need to think carefully about Europeans and Africans' legal interactions during colonial times.

Featured Image