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Many Africans have been brainwashed and gaslit by Western education that they do not understand the full extent to which Western industrialisation has underdeveloped Africa. https://twitter.com/Olwethu_Mkhize1/status/1330657481622745091
I hear Africans say, all the time, "we need to take responsibility and stop blaming slave trade and colonialism". They then cite examples of previous colonies that are doing better, like India or Vietnam.
What these people fail to realise is that no other group of people have had it as bad as we have. First of all, you have to understand that when slavers were coming to our coasts, they weren't interested in our old or our frail.
We were treated exactly how breeders would treat cattle. They would only ask for the healthiest and strongest among us.
They specifically looked out for those of us that were immune to the sort of diseases that were wiping out native Americans, like small pox.
They specifically looked out for those of us that were immune to the sort of diseases that were wiping out native Americans, like small pox.
Multiply this by 10s of millions at a time when the population of the continent was only about 100 million.
For centuries, the population of Africa remained stagnant. Do you know what it means for a population to remain stagnant for over 2 centuries?
For centuries, the population of Africa remained stagnant. Do you know what it means for a population to remain stagnant for over 2 centuries?
Then after stagnating and underdeveloping us, the colonisers decided on their own that we needed to be civilised. Well, at least this was the story they taught their children. Meanwhile, when colonialism started, all we got was wanton savagery.
The colonisers outrightly refused to develop any sort of productive capacity in Africa for another century after slavery.
Instead, they decided to make Africa the largest concentration camp in human history and confine Africans to the role of slave mine and field workers
Instead, they decided to make Africa the largest concentration camp in human history and confine Africans to the role of slave mine and field workers
On many occasions African leaders asked them to build factories in Africa, on many occasions they rejected those requests. Goods like African fabric and African leather, which were of way higher quality than European goods, deteriorated in quality over time, due to skill loss.
Europeans also systematically destroyed African trade routes, occasionally only allowing Africans to trade among ourselves if the goods were European.
(BTW, when they were leaving too, they made sure only stooges who maintained these structures occupied political offices.)
(BTW, when they were leaving too, they made sure only stooges who maintained these structures occupied political offices.)
Now you know the genesis of why to this date, African leaders run to Europe, cap in hand, to beg for aid, instead of focusing on developing African capacity.
Europe's mandate has been to confine Africa to the role of raw material supplier for the global capital machinery.
If justice means anything, Europe owes Africa enormous reparations, but what we keep getting is more and more debilitating debts that prevent us from developing.
If justice means anything, Europe owes Africa enormous reparations, but what we keep getting is more and more debilitating debts that prevent us from developing.
My point here is not to argue that we should stay sulking. But to show that we've had it really really bad. So incomprehensibly bad, that it is pointless trying to compare us with other colonised peoples.
We can, and we will save ourselves. We have no choice. We just have to reconnect to the guidance of our ancestors (Kwame Nkrumah, Assata Shakur, Marcus Garvey, Walter Rodney, Thomas Sankara, Frantz Fanon, W.E.B. du Bois, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba):
Pan-African socialism FTW!
Pan-African socialism FTW!
