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The Great Sankore University in Timbuktu
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The wave of independence across
Africa in the twentieth century was once heralded as one of the greatest
liberating movements in African history. Many swear colonialism is a thing of
the past. Yet the reality today paints a somewhat different picture. 54
countries in the African continent, but you can count on one hand how many of
these have a native "African" language as an official language.
Colonialism is alive and still dictates today.
With the colonial era came the
fallacious idea that portrayed the West as the superior know-how and Africans
as the representatives of an inferior culture. This is very misleading
considering that by the 19th century the African landscape had
advanced to surpass their economic and political systems.
Indeed Pre-colonial Africa had
prosperous political systems in the form of autonomous States and groups.
African economies were advanced in every area particularly the area of trade
long before colonial rule. By
the 14th century, the legendary city of Timbuktu was one of the greatest
academic and commercial centres in the world due to trade in salt, gold and
ivory. Under the Songhai empire, Timbuktu was also a great Muslim centre with
Qur'anic schools and a university centred at the Sankore mosque. Thousands of
students all over the world came to study here.
Exploitation, suppression and economic
enslavement - these are terms
that have their roots in colonialism and still continue to survive as weapons of
domination in today’s Africa.
Today, Western powers are not
taking over countries as in the 19th century but the insidious influence of
Western armies, finance and culture demonstrates that colonialism still exits
albeit in another form. In fact what we have is neo-colonialism. Such that in
theory the countries are independent but in actuality their economic systems
and political policies are directed from outside - This is the new face of
colonialism experienced in Africa.
It is no secret that Africa is home
to some of the world’s most precious minerals including diamonds, gold, coltan
and uranium - but as long as the miners have no say; as long as most mines are
in the hands of the private sector majority of which are foreign companies, the
sole beneficiaries remain the West. While the miners become like dogs waiting
to feed on the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.
In the 19th century, the economic goals of
colonialism were simple: to provide maximum economic benefits to the colonial
powers at the lowest price possible. How much has changed since? Not much . The
West are still fronting "trade" "democracy" "human
rights" but behind the scenes they are exploiting Africa for oil and other
natural resources just like in the colonial rule era. It is the countries that
they "helped" or are "helping" that suffer so badly.
Oil- rich Libya is now famed for
political unrest and battles. Once upon a time, the lucrative oil industry had
turned Libya into Africa's wealthiest country. Libya had the highest GDP per
capita and life expectancy on the continent. In fact less people lived below
the poverty line than in the Netherlands. That was all until the West decided
to intervene and control the oil. Hiding behind the veil of
"democracy" they branded Gaddafi a tyrant and then killed him. As of
now, the democracy and freedoms promised by the West, are yet to fully
arrive, and may never do so.
Libya is literally on its knees, it
is now no more than a radical Islamist's playground, its economy is in
shambles. But ever since chaos erupted in Libya those who financed Gaddafi’s
ouster chose to instead turn a blind eye; and play hide and seek to the massive
exodus of refugees which has turned into a crisis on their door step.
Moreover, most major European
countries today have gold as their reserve- massive reserves of gold which have
a very expensive price tag. But can you show me at least one gold mine in any
of these countries. Can you name one net exporter of gold ore in any of these
countries? How ironic that the countries they buy this gold from remain poor?
Somewhere along the way Africa is
being short changed.
And God forbid all African nations
come together as one to fight imperialism and build one stable economy, because
then the real losers will be the West. Where will they go to get these natural
resources at the exploitive prices they enjoy now? This is why Pan-Africanism
is a threat to Western interests in Africa and the imperialists are ready to
fight tooth and nail to combat the movement. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was
one of Africa's surviving Pan Africanists. He had a road map to Africa’s unity
and prosperity of which he was willing to finance. But of course this did not
augur well with the Western powers so something had to give. The soft option
was to get rid of Gaddafi and maintain their exploitative tendencies.
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Colonial languages: Map showing languages that were introduced to Africa
when Africa was colonised by Europe. As a result, European languages (colonial
languages) became the official language(s) - This remains the case even today.
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When you look at the continent’s
railway systems. They all go from a coastal port inland to a mine. They were
not built to link peoples or towns or regions, they were designed to extract
Africa’s mineral wealth as quickly and cheaply as possible and ship it
overseas. The "colonial map that made little sense" drawn in Europe
by Europeans, is still the basis for the political map of Africa today. Africa
played no part in the creation of their national states and despite being home
to at least 2000 languages, you can count on one hand how many of the 54
national states have a native "African" language as an official
language.
"Children go
to school without any learning aids. Taught in a language which is not
theirs..." Nelson Mandela
during his speech at the London School of Economics, 2000.
Colonialism long existed in
Africa but it is the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 that
fully legitimised it. At the conference, Britain, France, Italy, Germany,
Belgium, Spain and Portugal convened to negotiate their territorial claims in
Africa and establish their colonial borders, hence the term Scramble for Africa. Africa was literally carved up
without regard for pre-existing linguistic and political boundaries. This not
only perpetuated ethnic tensions where they did not previously exist, but it
also introduced a cultural dichotomy detrimental to the native inhabitants. The
new inherited national states often had little in common with traditional
boundaries based on ethnicity, language, religion or natural features.
This created border disputes and underpinned many African conflicts such
as those between Tutsis and Hutus, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Somalia and
‘Somaliland’, and North and South Sudan.
Yet half a century later, Africans
were given flags and national anthems, airlines and armies and told they were
“independent,” but the countries created and the systems that the Europeans
imposed on Africa as they left were not rooted in African culture or
experiences. And they were certainly not strong enough to contain social and
ethnic pressure that lay immediately beneath the surface. As much as
slave trade, colonialism destroyed Africa. Its resources, lands, people, and
cultures were expropriated. Colonialism meant the development and enrichment of
the West at Africa’s expense; a crime of enormous proportion that can never
justified. Millions died.
“In the mid-20th century, more than 3 million
people were killed in the construction of the Brazzaville-Ocean Railway by
France. The creation of such infrastructure, which connected Africa’s raw
materials to points of export to Europe, was described as giving Africa the
benefits of “Western civilisation.” The same process continues today and is now called “development.”
The multi-sided war that has killed
more than 6 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998 is
not simply the result of tribal animosities but the country's wealth in coltan.
The war was coincided with the information technology boom that has caused a
huge demand for coltan - the mineral used in electronic gadgets such
as mobile phones, computers and iPods. Congo possesses 80 percent of the world's
coltan.”
Ultimately, independence
officially restored power in Africa to Africans but Western influence remains
strong. And while Africa is often presented as “chaotic” there is always a
comprehensible explanation. Despite its corrupt leaders and their poor
management of resources, most of this chaos is created by outsiders to serve
their capitalistic greed. Africa remains a victim of a neo-colonialist
conspiracy to keep it poor, a continuation of imperialism and exploitation that
dates back to the slave trade.
Dr. No is a special guy that came From Russia with Love,
To him, Tomorrow Never Dies,
