Colonialism

1 Pages 286 Words

More than three decades after most African nations became independent, there is no consensus on the legacy of
colonialism. With most African countries still only tottering on their feet and many close to collapse, some people ask
whether the problem is due to Africa's colonial experience or inherent adequacies of the African? For apologists of
colonialism the answer is simple. Whatever may have been the shortcomings of colonial rule, the overall effect was
positive for Africa. Sure, the colonial powers exploited Africa’s natural resources but on the balance, colonialism
reduced the economic gap between Africa and the West, the apologists argue. Colonialism laid the seeds of the
intellectual and material development in Africans. It brought enlightenment where there was ignorance. It suppressed
slavery and other barbaric practices such as pagan worship and cannibalism. Formal education and modern medicine
were brought to people who had limited understanding or control of their physical environment. The introduction of
modern communications, exportable agricultural crops and some new industries provided a foundation for economic
development. Africans received new and more efficient forms of political and economic organisation. Warring
communities were united into modern nation-states with greater opportunity of survival in a competitive world than the
numerous mini entities that existed before. Africa is in political and economic turmoil today, defenders of imperialism say,
because it failed to take advantage of its inheritance from colonial rule. It was, they summarise, Africa’s inadequacies
that made colonisation necessary and the outcome of post-independence self-rule suggests that the withdrawal by the
colonial powers was premature....