Throughout long history, European powers and the broader dynamics of globalization have had an enormous influence on the African continent. However, in reality Africans themselves have always played an important role in shaping their own destiny. From my perspective, Africans have shaped their own destiny both positively and negatively, and I would like to talk about three key moments in which Africans shaped their own history. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, one of the key moments in which Africans shaped their own destiny was when local Africans became soldiers and served for European powers. This started happening around the turn of the 19th century. As Parker and Rathbone mentioned in their book “African History – A very short Introduction”, “the conquest was further facilitated and above all diminished by the widespread use of locally recruited African soldiers”. To me, I think it's very ironic because Africans helped European powers kill Africans. It sounds very ironic and ridiculous, but it actually happened in Africa at the end of the 19th century. Indeed, it is never so easy for colonizers to totally occupy and colonize another country or territory, even for the mighty Great British Empire. However, colonization would become much easier if the local population betrayed their land, their citizens and their country. The authors also show us an image on page 98 of the book, where this image shows us local African soldiers holding European-made weapons and helping them occupy Sudan in 1898. So, I think this is a key moment that they Africans themselves lived. they shaped their own destiny as such treacherous actions really helped the colonizers to rule this land faster and easier. The move that the local Africans make for the European powers was very ridiculous because they had shaped their own destiny in a negative way and many resources had been stolen by the European colonizers. Secondly, the second key moment I would like to talk about happened around 1908. At this time Africans also shaped their own destiny in a negative way. According to Parker and Rathbone, “here the violence was not associated with the suppression of the rebellion but with the desperate attempt to extract wealth in the form of ivory and rubber from the scattered populations of the equatorial forest.” and “in 1908 Leopold was forced by international pressure to cede his vast private fiefdom to the Belgian government.” Before 1908, King Leopold was the king of the Independent State of Congo and under his control local Africans did not realize the importance of protecting the environment and resisting pressure from missionaries and journalists. The kind Leopold did not induce his people to properly manage natural resources, and that is why the Africans themselves gave the European powers the opportunity to create bad public rumors against them. This had led King Leopold to relinquish his power over the nation to the Belgian government. In my opinion, if the gentle Leopold could better protect his environment during that time, his citizens could have very different destinies and lives. This key moment has enormous historical significance because this issue shows us that the European powers did not even use the army, but could instead govern the African territory using only international pressure and public voices. Next, unlike those above the third moment I' What I would like to talk about is how.