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Before you start browsing through this article, it should be borne in mind that this article does not aim to argue for or against a widely believed view; but is just a collection of mischievous thoughts by the author on his homeland: Mama Africa. During my time at Atlantic College, a lot of thoughts have crept through my mind and I have felt the need to express them, since after all, we are focusing on the continent of Africa.
Most African nations have been independent (I resist the strong urge to put the last word in quotation marks) for a period of about forty years, most of them obtaining their independence in the sixties. It is even more disturbing to find out that in this time period, most of them have been able to achieve virtually nothing. A popular British adage says: A fool at forty is a fool forever and another popular one says: Life begins at forty. So, after forty years of independence, what has mother Africa managed to achieve, well you didn’t have to guess long: nothing. Going by the standards of those proverbs, are we Africans fools (no offence to my lovable fellow Africans) or are we being held back from progress?
The turn of the new century has brought about outstanding advances in the fields of science and technology, but I find it surprising that with all the talents and natural resources in Africa we still have managed to produce nothing (Of course, Africa should have some talents, with a population of 600 million, I generally think so). But there is still hope, I am quite proud to say that we have managed over the last couple of years increases in many other fields such as: AIDS, levels of foreign debt, numbers of people living in poverty, and the last but not least; corruption. A lot of the problems facing Africa have been blamed on the damaging influences of colonialism and slavery; some of the problems have also attributed to tribalism.
But first things first, let us talk about the effects of colonialism on Mama Africa. Africa was colonized mainly by European powers towards the latter end of the 19th century, most of Africa being divided up between England, France, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, (and Italy tried Ethiopia without success). Most African nations were colonized mainly through the medium of religion i.e. Christianity, in the form of missionaries who might or might not have had dubious intents on going to Africa rather than just spreading the word of God. A popular African novelist wrote this on colonialism and missionaries: “When they came, we had the land and they had the Bible, they told us to close our eyes and pray; when we opened our eyes, we had the Bible and they had the land”.
I would feel uncomfortable if I did not say that the whole issue of colonialism was done as smartly as possible, in fact, I even admire the intelligence behind its operation. The colonial masters did not even have to do the work for themselves, all they did was pit one tribe against another (With the abundance of tribes in Africa, this made it fairly easy) and we Africans did the dirty work by ourselves. We were then patted on the head, and like faithful dogs obeying their masters we nodded our heads and wagged our tails in admiration, salivating in the manner of Pavlovian dogs for the bounty we were about to receive. Additionally, to further ensure their dominance, seeing that some tribes were a little bit clever combined with the fact that their interests were beginning to clash, the colonialists headed for Berlin in 1884 - 85 where decisions were made on how to slice up portions of the delicious cake of Africa, a period which has so rightfully been given its name in history as the Scramble for Africa.
Most African nations were then ruled for a period of about a century until they received their independence as a result of an increasing wave of opposition by Africans and well-meaning citizens abroad. Now, were you beginning to think that the colonies were granted independence as a result of some increase in moral consciousness??? Well, it just seems pretty odd that almost all African nations seemed to collect independence in the sixties, which no doubt a lot of people attribute to an increasing wave of nationalism amongst Africans. But it should be noted that in the sixties, it was no longer profitable for the colonial powers to hold control of their colonies as a result of increasing opposition in addition to the fact that the colonies had to provide for the defense, administration and economics of these nations. It should be noted that one of the reasons for rise of colonialism was strategic and diplomatic in nature, with European leaders treating colonies as pawns in a global chess game.
You are probably beginning to think that I am going to blame all the reasons for Africa’s backwardness on the effects of slavery and imperialism; (After all, the colonists of the nineteenth century based their moral justification of colonialism on the need to bring the fruits of Western civilization to Africa because they believed they had a moral duty to rule “backward peoples”). Far from it, colonialism brought about many advantages ranging from economical, medical, technological, and educational benefits to its subjects. A common characteristic of modern African leaders is the tendency to blame all the problems of their continent on someone else, and I do not intend to follow that line of judgment. There is no doubt that the aforementioned events (colonialism and slavery) took away great amounts of resources from the continent, but taking a look at other countries who have suffered the same fate, are they not more developed than African nations?
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Bamidele05
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