Opinion: Impact of colonialism and neo-colonialism on African economies
The onslaught of colonialism in Africa started way back in the 7th century when invaders took control of the northern parts of the African continent, above the Sahara.
African natural resources and even slaves, were exported and textiles were imported including the most praised of them all being human beings chatteled as slaves, were exported in exchange of finished goods of the day.
This situation changed when the influential European powers convened the 1886 Berlin Conference, sometimes called the Berlin West African Conference or the Congo Conference. At that conference the European powers partitioned Africa among themselves.
Each European power got for itself exclusive market rights within the borders of that area of Africa petitioned to itself.
That area became its sphere of influence or colonial territory. Up to today, the borders of African countries, are the same artificial boundaries that were drawn at the Berlin Conference completely by passing the local ethnic structures.
They translated their shared portions on the maps into frontiers on the African ground, separating tribes, families and mixing hostile ethnic groups.
Using conquest, forced labour, taxation and monetization, the Europeans Colonialists were able to exploit Africa’s rich resources and to turn Africa into a consumer market for the products manufactured in Europe.
However, the wind of change which blew after the two world wars, produced African nationalist movements which appealed to the newly emergent superpowers forcing the Europeans to grant independence to their African colonies.
The colonialists however crafted new instruments to continue exercising influence over the newly independent African States.
The instrument was in the form of economic pressure by the former colonial masters to dominate and control their former colonies. This is what has come to be known as neo-colonialism, the domination of African countries by the more powerful states.
Neo-colonialism operates through indirect control of the economic, political and socio-cultural life of African countries, unlike colonialism which was direct control, neo-colonialism operates indirectly and secretly.
Whereas, colonialism required a physical occupation of the territory, in neo-colonialism, there is no physical presence in the neo-colonial state.
In his book “Neo-Colonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism”, former President of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah observed that “for those who practice [neo-colonialism], it means power without responsibility and for those who suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress”.
Neo-colonialism has manifested itself in the areas covering political, economic and socio-cultural systems such as; military takeovers, uneven balance of trade, and the dependence on former colonial masters, for financial handouts by whatever name called.
The African States have been easy catch for neo-colonialism because, during colonialism, the African continent was divided into several small states which after decolonization became enable, to run their own affairs from a sound economic base.
Whereas to the colonialists these small colonial states were still collectively one market to them, each newly independent African State looked within itself as a single market within the nationalism of a sovereign state.
Weak with no viable market of their own they have become the subject of neo-colonialism.
The neo-colonial powers have exploited this weak economic state of affairs by using methods, such as economic aid and linking their economics and policies of their less developed neo-colonial states, to their own systems.
The neo-colonial system for financial assistance, use aid as a means of controlling the colonial states through the structural adjustment programs, making the former colonies dependent on a financial system whose in-built mechanism insures that neo-colonialism indirectly maintains control over African countries.
Neo-colonialism has insured that Africans live within a cultural context of an inferiority complex where products made in their own countries are taken to be inferior to those imported from neo-colonial states.
Another form in which neo-colonialism has manifested itself is through trade imbalance whereby, African countries produce raw materials and sell to the neo-colonial states which transform them into finished products which are exported back to Africa.
The prices of the raw materials as well as the finished goods are determined by the neo-colonial states.
The African economy is not complimentary as Africans produce what they do not consume, and consume what they do not produce. A system which started during the colonial era.
The neo-colonial system continues to manifest itself in the monetary policy of former colonies. The value of the currency of African countries is eternally lower compared to those of the former colonial powers. It is constantly being devalued.
The high exchange rate making it difficult for African countries to have the necessary financial means or the same purchasing power as the neo-colonial states. This continues to make it difficult for countries to acquire machines that are vital for their development.
The former colonial states in their enthusiasm for independence, clenched chains around their bosom believing that they were embracing freedom.
Now they must turn this around by facing the reality of being their own messiahs and arm themselves in the struggle against the onslaught of neo-colonialism on the development of African economies.
The author is the Minister of State for Lands
