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?
The dawn of the new century has brought about an increased realization on the part of our African leaders for the need for some sort of economic and social rejuvenation, and this has been initiated by the new initiatives in the continent such as the African Union and NEPAD (New Economic Partnership for African Development). I do not mean to sound pessimistic, but looking at the record of past African initiatives, what have they achieved? You might say that was a long time ago, but let us take a look at recent events, for us Africans. Remember the airline Air Afrique? The airline established by the governments of Uganda, Senegal and Nigeria et al in an attempt to bring a sort of low cost airline to their fellow countrymen? Barely three years after its inception, where is it now? Also, returning to the subject of the African Union, why did the name have to be changed from the Organization of African Unity to its present name? This was done to give the so-called leaders an opportunity to display the usual pomp and pageantry associated with Africans (I mean, look at Gaddafi, he brought around a dozen bulletproof limousines to the ceremony!). It seems we are not deceiving anyone but ourselves, what shall we tell posterity? That after forty years we have not been able to achieve anything!
Additionally, looking at the way African countries are run, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that we are blatantly deceiving ourselves. Take Nigeria as an example, it is still a shame to see that in this second phase of democratic dispensation, the biggest share of the national budget goes to defense (with education far behind), that is, when the budget gets passed sometime in the middle of the year. Every nation knows that a good quality education is the catalyst for economic and technological development, but still in Africa, we have nations that do not have enough universities to cater for half their student population and have to matriculate twice in every three years to give their students a chance of admission. Then our leaders come and blame the West for the current brain drain disturbing our continent. I think it is time for a serious rethinking of our economic and social policies, if at all we ever want to reach the Promised Land.
A common feature of the democratic dispensations in Africa is their inherent attraction for white elephant projects. The Nigerian government recently launched its first satellite into space from Russia, I must admit that this is a sort of welcome development and it is also cool for Africa to have some sort kind of artistic artifact outside the earth. But seriously, of what use is this project to a country where more than half of its citizens live below the poverty line? What use is a satellite to a country still owing foreign debts to the tune of $30 billion? The Nigerian government claims to be trying its best at attracting foreign direct investment, with our blessed president spending more time in foreign locations than his homeland. But how does a country with no basic infrastructure attract foreign investment? I mean this is just a gross example of not attacking problems from their grassroots, the recent results listed by an NGO (“Transparency International”) placed Nigeria as the second most corrupt country in the world for the second year running. The government says it is taking a tough stance on corruption, but how many bigwigs has it managed to capture since the inception of its campaign five years ago?
At this stage, I would like to pose this question to all Africans; what are we heading towards? The United Nations Development Program has listed Africa as the only continent to have increasing rates of poverty in the 21st century; surely this is not a good omen for our beloved continent. What foundations and examples are we lying down for our future generations? A Yoruba proverb says: Bi ile ngbe osika ti iku npa oloto, bo pe titi ore a maa su ni se (Translation: If the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, one feels reluctant to do good). With this, I would like to remind you that this article does not express my view on this issue, but is simply a collection of some of my thoughts on my beloved homeland.
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