Once
again you can test your knowledge on Mama's previous article. Click
here
if you would like to take a short quiz based on last
week's article.
We have already looked
at Africa before colonialism and I’m sure you understand the
possible effects of such drastic and sudden changes to African culture
and government occurring with the arrival of colonialism. At the
beginning of the twentieth century, Africa was divided randomly
by various European countries (click
here to see map). Colonial powers also imposed their native languages
all over the continent (click here to
see map) and heavily disrupted traditional social and political
structures. In this article, we will discuss a few of the most important
challenges that Africa faced at the time of independence.
The independence
of African countries was not something which came suddenly. Actually,
as early as the early 1922, Egypt had gained independence. Of course
one must not forget the two nations which were never colonized at
all: Ethiopia and Liberia. Liberia was founded as a state for freed
slaves who wanted to “return home” to Africa. The major
issue for Liberia even today is that most of the returning slaves
had not only never stepped their feet on African soil; but were
definitely not from Liberia. Yet, the United States gave them control
over the territory despite the effects it would have on local Africans
who had lived there for generations. The struggle between “new”
and “old” Liberians is something which has affected
the country continuously and which has its role to play in the current
violence and war in the country.
Other than the three
countries mentioned above though, freedom from colonialism began
in the early 1950’s and continued until very recently when
Zimbabwe gained its independence on April 18th, 1980. Zimbabwe was
not an isolated case in Africa. Eritrea gained its independence
in 1993! There are still colonies in Africa to this day. You probably
remember that the island of Reunion which is just off the coast
of the African nation of Madagascar is a department of France to
this day!
As we learned in
the previous articles, the colonists didn’t regard ethnic
or language barriers when deciding how to carve up Africa into regions
which would later become the African nations of today. Therefore,
it is easy to understand the problems that these new nations faced
after reaching independence.
There are two excellent
examples of the effects of trying to build a nation with borders
that didn’t respect ethnic group boundaries. Let us look at
the two extremes: Case one is the nation of Somalia, which at independence
happened to be the only country in Africa where the people inside
the country’s boundaries are of the same ethnic and cultural
group, (we call this monoculture). Yet even though Somalia had Somali
people in its borders at independence, they were not all in Somalia.
Many of them found themselves cut in two, with part of their family
living in Somalia and the other part living across the borders of
either Kenya or Ethiopia. It is easy to understand why there has
been border fighting between these three countries ever since as
Somalia tries to gain the territory that it considers “its
people” to live on.
The second case we
will look at is Nigeria. During colonization, power was split between
the three major ethnic groups: the Hausa/Fulani in the north, the
Yoruba in the west, and the Igbo in the east. The colonists used
the age old concept of “divide and conquer” to keep
constant tension between the different major ethnic groups. This
style of leadership also ensured that the many less populous ethnic
groups who were left powerless would remain fragmented. With police
power in one group’s hand, education in another and financial
power in yet a third; it made the idea of mass revolt less likely.
This split has led to conflict ever since. In a nation with a large
population where so many ethnic, religious and language groups share
a country, it is already quite difficult to give people an idea
of nationality. With the addition of the tough colonial legacy of
division; it makes the task even more complicated to achieve.
Governing these new
countries after independence was a hard undertaking! Despite the
fact that freedom from colonization was definitely a good thing;
self rule was not always as simple as electing a President and building
a government. Many of those who took power were trained in
European schools and/or shunned traditional methods. Many of the
men who led Africa’s newly independent nations were trained
to lead in the European style, despite the fact that the European
models were not adapted to the culture, history or traditions of
Africans. These foreign governing systems were left in place and
simply taken over by local people.
Women had also lost
their role in society. This led to serious problems which persist
even today because a large portion of the population is left out
of the decision-making process. Women remain the caretakers, the
ones who produce food for their families with subsistence farming
and are those who often sell their wares at the marketplace to make
ends meet. Therefore, it is a serious matter if they are left out
of the process since they have the hands-on knowledge which could
serve to build lasting and durable growth and development.
Speaking of development,
most African economies at the time of independence were “one
crop” economies. As we discussed in an earlier article, Europe
used Africa to provide them with raw materials which were later
either consumed (such as coffee, tea and chocolate), or manufactured
and later sold, (like oil, wood or minerals). Some countries produced
primarily one crop such as cocoa which wasn’t a staple. So
if the world economy wasn’t doing well and foods such as these
“dessert” items weren’t in high demand, the economy
of a nation was at stake. Without diversity in their production,
they were often left completely at the mercy of western consumers.
Finally, we must
remember that the West might have left African soil but it had no
desire to give up its influence. It has been successful at maintaining
that influence even today. Whether through aid, arms sales, or
outright coups and assassinations, those who used to have colonies
in Africa a few decades ago, still manage to have their influence
today.
We can not know how
African cultures would have evolved without the introduction of
colonization. Yet we can safely say that the evolution would have
been one which was natural and which remained in the context of
Africa’s history and various cultures. Now it is up to us
Africans to do what we can to improve our situation in a way that
remembers the past and looks forward to the future…
Thanks for joining
me again! See you next time for the first in the series
of articles about Poverty.
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