The new cancer in Africa

why the continent is impoverished.
One school of thought blames leaders for gross mismanagement in political and economic fields.
The other wants to analyse the situation with respect to colonialism and neo-colonialism and from a historical perspective, which combine theory and practice.
It must be stated that the impoverishment of the African continent and all other developing countries has been a result of the legacy of slavery, colonialism, the Cold War, the workings of the international economic system, and the inadequacies of, and shortcomings in, the policies pursued by other countries in the post-independence era.
After political independence there was yet another protracted struggle — the struggle of economic independence. For centuries, Africa has been integrated into the world economy mainly as a supplier of cheap labour and raw materials.
This is meant to drain Africa’s resources rather than their use for the continent’s development. The drive to use the minerals and raw materials to develop manufacturing industries and a highly skilled labour force to sustain growth and development has been lost.
Thus, Africa remains the poorest continent despite being one of the most richly endowed regions of the world.
Colonialism subverted hitherto traditional structures, institutions and values or made them subservient to the economic and political needs of the imperial powers.
It also retarded the development of an entrepreneurial class, as well as a middle class with skills and managerial capacity.
Today, one of the most common strategies to subvert Africa’s development is by using other Africans and presenting them as great thinkers who can work well with former colonists and putting them in front to destabilise legitimately elected governments.
These puppets came in politics by using the word “democracy” which they never experienced before.
Many states are facing these situations and the attendant conflicts hamper economic development.
Former colonists are happy to watch these conflicts in order to come indirectly to divide and rule, exploiting developing countries’ resources.
This is neo-colonialism at play.
Neo-colonialism is not a new phenomenon in economic development, especially in developing countries.
It is a system of continued domination economically by former colonialists despite gaining political independence.
However, after political independence is achieved, there is the problem of economic ties with the ex-colonial power that may seem like continued control.
Most of the countries develop some sort of rapprochement with the former colonists, which is usually viewed as to the mutual advantage.
Those countries which were colonised by the British would go and join the so-called “Commonwealth Club” and those former French colonies would be comfortable to work with France forgetting what their ancestors passed through at the hands of the same masters.
However, one of the questions that are posed by political and economic scholars is, “why the former colonists do not retire and leave the newly independent countries to decide their future destiny?”
Analysts view this question as a complex one.
The problem is, economically; the newly independent state was closely tied to the ex-colonial power.
These ties could not be easily removed and removing them would be dangerous for economic health of the country and its people. Hence, economic instability would cause political instability.
As a result, most newly independent states deliberately kept their economic dependence on their old masters while trying to reduce the degree of dependence.
Developing world countries have some differences and some similarities.
The most obvious similarity about all the developing countries is that they suffer from overwhelming poverty — poverty of a degree almost unimaginable in the West.
In most developing world countries this poverty is combined with the presence of a wealthy elite.
In some countries, the elite class is closely linked to the developed countries to continue supplying them with raw materials.
Therefore, the new nation feels it is being exploited by selling a raw material at a very low price only to buy a product from the same raw material at exorbitant prices.
It is interesting to note that even Nepad leadership is aware and should also be cautious with whoever comes to Africa for partnership. Partnership, if it is genuine, should bring joy to both people in return.
But if one comes with the aim of looting the other partner’s resources, then the question of neo-colonialism comes in. In one of the Nepad documents it is stated that the distribution of benefits that the global imbalance is most glaring.
Therefore, most developing countries have undertaken to insist that the processing of the raw materials take place at home, thus producing an industry, employing people and giving them some sense of that they are not being exploited.