24th February, 2014
By: Amir Abdulazeez
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he late historian, Professor Walter Rodney spent 361
pages of writing in 1972 trying to convince readers on how Europe
underdeveloped Africa. The book was a masterpiece, as it was one of the best literatures
on European imperialism, especially as it relates to Africa. The late historian
did a magnificent job in explaining how slave trade, colonialism and
neo-colonialism of Africa by Europe and other western imperialist robbed Africa
of development.
Walter Rodney was very much right in his views, as he
based his analysis on the prevailing events of immediate post- African
independence period of late 1960’s and early 1970’s. He completed his book just
about a decade after most African countries got their independence. At the time
his book was published in 1972, some African countries like Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Angola and Namibia were still under colonial rule. Therefore the
issues he raised were very much relevant at that time.
We are now in 2014, 42 years after the book: ‘How Europe
Underdeveloped Africa’ by Walter Rodney was published. This is almost half a
century, yet Africa is still in search of development. This time around, we
truly know who are under developing Africa, certainly not the Europeans.
Had Rodney not being assassinated by a walkie talkie
bomb in 1980, I have every reason to believe that he would have lived to
develop a different viewpoint about the underdevelopment of Africa. Probably,
he would have written a new book with the title: ‘How Africans Underdeveloped
Africa’. Between the period 1950-2010, the world witnessed some of the greatest
transformations ever to have happened to this place called earth. However,
Africa is not going along with the world and we should have no one to blame but
ourselves. In the world of today, it is every man for himself; no one can
develop you, no matter how much he wants to if you don’t want to develop
yourself.
Since Rodney was not opportune to witness the Africa
of today, we must take it as a duty, to bring out the role of Africans in the
massive underdevelopment of contemporary Africa. This is by no means an attempt
to sweep under the carpet, the brutal, selfish, exploitative and inhumane roles
played by the western imperialists in Africa’s underdevelopment.
We must tell ourselves the bitter truth that what
happened in the past belonged to the past and those who are still thinking of
the past are wasting the present and would therefore have no future. Currently,
Africans are the cause of Africa’s underdevelopment. Slave trade and
colonialism are things of the past and they did not occur only in Africa, they
happened in Latin America, North America, Asia and other parts of the world.
Can we compare those regions with Africa today? Are countries like India,
Malaysia, Mexico, Brazil, Singapore and the likes still blaming the Europeans
for their past misfortune or have they transformed themselves into powerful
economic and political blogs. Brazil is now the 7th largest economy
in the world, 37 places above their former colonial masters Portugal who are 44th.
In the history of the world, every civilization as
well as every country has had its ups and downs. Europe bounced back from World
Wars I and II, the U.S.A bounced back from civil war and racism, Asia and Latin
America bounced back from colonialism, dictatorships and political turmoil, why
will Africa not bounce back from salve trade and colonialism?
At present, it is obvious that Africa is the least
developed inhabited continent of the world. The region suffers from all sorts
of problems, 90% of which are man-made. Naturally, the region seem to be the
luckiest, because it is the one of the most geographically stable continents
with least occurrence of natural disasters like earth quakes, vulcanicity,
hurricanes, tornadoes, acid rain and the likes. Most parts of the region don’t
have unbearable weather like the extremely cold Polar Regions or extremely hot
Arabian regions. This is in addition to the abundance of mineral and other
natural resources. Africa is the global chief source of raw materials because
rather than process and manufacture its raw materials, Africa exports them for
others to process and sell finished products to them at exorbitant prices.
Nearly 10% of the world’s known oil reserves are in Africa but all for nothing.
The most prominent problem of Africa is leadership
failure. Most past and present African leaders have failed the region woefully
and their brutal sit-tight phenomena have made it very difficult or impossible
for them to be replaced. More than 85% of African elections are not free,
unfair and not credible. Only Ghana, Senegal, South Africa and some few other
countries can boast of relatively free and fair elections. Until very recently,
elections were not even conducted at all in almost the entire North Africa.
African leaders steal public funds in millions and
billions of dollars and invest same in European economies. How many leaders in
other continents steal public funds and invest in Africa?
Another problem in Africa is the failure of its
citizens to recognize themselves as each other’s natural brothers by virtue of
being human beings. Hardly, could you find an African country that is
completely devoid of religious and ethnic crisis. Every year thousands of lives
and properties are being lost in Africa in the name of religious and ethnic
differences. Just 20 years ago in Rwanda, more than 800,000 people were
estimated to have been killed just because they belong to a particular ethnic
group. Currently in Central African Republic, people are being massacred in
their hundreds because of their faiths. According to Wikipedia, between 1.2 to
2.4 million Africans died during the Atlantic Slave Trade over a period of
about 360 years. In my estimates, the amount of those who died as a result of
ethnic and religious crises in Africa between 1980-2010 have since exceeded that
figure. The people who died in the 34 months old Nigerian civil war alone are
close to the entire number of Africans who died in the 360 years of Atlantic
Slave Trade.
When we look at the very few African countries
claiming to be recording progress in economic growth, we find out that their
people are in deep suffering, as if increase in national economic growth is
directly proportional to increase in poverty and suffering. What these African
nations are having is development in irony, a development that increases the
suffering of the people, makes the poor poorer and the rich richer. For example
the minimum wage in Venezuela is about N80,000 but in Nigeria workers are
struggling to have a minimum wage of N18,000. Venezuela has a labour force of
13.5 million people with 5.6% unemployment rate while Nigeria has a work force of
about 52.5 million people with 24% unemployment rate. With this analysis, why
will Venezuela’s minimum wage more than quadruple that of Nigeria?
Despite these problems and troubles, Africa still has
a chance to develop. The resources, manpower and all the potentials are there.
What are lacking are the will and the determination. Let all Africans put their
hands on deck to make sure the region is pulled out of this mess and placed in
its rightful place in the global development map by the year 2030.
©2014: abdulazeezamir@hotmail.com
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