In the late 19th century, Britain, France, Germany and other European states agreed on the division of Africa into a patchwork of colonies, and set about exploring and exploiting their new possessions. Violence was endemic to the process, for how else could the Africans already living there be persuaded to cede their land, labor, property and freedom to foreigners? Colonialism's brutal dialectic of repression and resistance was set in motion, as Africans fought to defend their lives and, eventually, organized national political movements and underground military ones to win their rights and freedom. White Man's Country combines period photographs and contemporary location footage with the testimony of African and European witnesses, to examine both sides of Europe's "civilizing mission" in Africa.