Africans must take responsibility for the problems they are facing. It has been 50 years since Ghana’s independence in 1957. It has been 27 years since the independence of Zimbabwe. It has been 13 years since the independence of South Africa. So whatever is happening in Africa, we as Africans must take responsibility for our circumstances. There has been a major failure around vision in Africa – political vision and economic vision. There has been major failure around leadership – political leadership and economic leadership. So Africans . . . We Africans are guilty as charged in terms of failure. Having said that, prior to our independence, and even after our independence, there have been external factors that have made our existence and our development very problematic. Before independence, ________ slavery and the slave triangle. That distorted the history and trajectory of Africa’s development. After slavery, the project of colonialism. That, again, disturbed and changed the history and trajectory of African development. Okay? And then we fought wars and struggles of independence and anti-colonialism. We managed to get our independence. After that independence, there still were elements of neo-colonialism and external factors, external corporations, external governments that were involved in a negative way in our economic operations. In terms of manipulation of the economy, ownership of the industries without actually cultivating and building infrastructure and so on and so forth, promoting civil wars. Western powers were involved in pitting one ethnic group against another. Western powers and companies in Africa were involved – are involved in using ethnic conflicts to get access to diamonds, access to oil, and so on and so forth. So these are some of the forces that have led to our challenges in Africa – slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, and sheer greed.
Recorded On: 7/5/07
Discuss
Marcin Cz on January 13, 2008, 10:46 PM
Blaming somebody else for your problems and failures is quite childish. You have independent countries and you are leading yourself.
Marcin Cz on January 14, 2008, 3:46 AM
Blaming somebody else for your problems and failures is quite childish. You have independent countries and you are leading yourself.
Joanne L. on January 30, 2008, 4:47 AM
One cannot deny history.Colonialism stunted the natural progression and growth of developing nations. You have to recognize that the eduction, culture and religious practices of the groups and individuals were denied to them and they were forced to take on practices and beliefs that were not their own.
Joanne L. on January 30, 2008, 9:47 AM
One cannot deny history.Colonialism stunted the natural progression and growth of developing nations. You have to recognize that the eduction, culture and religious practices of the groups and individuals were denied to them and they were forced to take on practices and beliefs that were not their own.
shawn disney on March 14, 2009, 10:38 PM
Colonials regimes have forever promoted “divide and conquer”, as also have the thugs who took over afterwards.
Until africans are willing to align their “countries” borders with their ethnic borders, the chaos is likely to continue. Majority rules, but when minorities are present, not peaceably. disigny
shawn disney on March 14, 2009, 11:07 PM
This is a major delusion, and not just in Africa. “Countries” whose borders were not drawn in agreement with ethnic identities are always weak, and a short step away from trouble, whether from inside or outside. They should not be called Independent, or “Nations” either; that’s exactly what they are not.Divide and Conquer is the Classic tactic of colonialists, but it works just as well for home grown Dictators.disigny
Will Ray on March 22, 2009, 3:21 PM
As a business executive I have direct experience in Africa. He is correct. Like every country, Africa has a culture at the top that creates an invisible wall between a positive vision, social empathy, economical mobility of citizens, and wealth generation. Europeans happen to be holding cards in the development African nations. The banking system was in a position to finance trade, infrastructure, education and corporate development. The problem is honesty, oversight, and regulation are fare worse than Wall Street, and fraudulent American Corporate leaders. the corporate culture doesn’t feel they are engaging in fraud. They have a sense of entitlement that allows them to say, “If I can get away with it, and it pays it must be good capitalism and therefore not illegal or unethical.”
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