With the advent of colonialism, so was the annihilation of family responsiveness to one another. The colonial masters created their imperialist bureaucracies in which Africans automatically became servants to white foreigners. The colonialist implemented what should be characterised as a preferential incentive system. Such a system required special bonuses to be discriminately granted to those Africans with the highest potential to work and produce. To put it in a better perspective, the preferential incentive system was a bribery scheme introduced by white foreigners to exploit the human resources of the Africans. Such a scheme pioneered the current problems of corruption and bribery in African politics. The sense of familiness is now replaced with “If you don’t tip me, you won’t get my services.” Such is the phenomenon in African politics today.
The colonialists were also involved in massive economic exploitation. They took away our minerals and other forms of our natural resources. They did no wrong because of their sovereignty over the colonies. In Sierra Leone, for instance, the ‘Hut Tax War’ between a tribal chief and the British colonialists is analogous to one of the causes of the American War of Independence — “Taxation without Representation.” Many other forms of illegal taxation schemes were also imposed in other West African countries.
S many African soldiers fought on the side of the colonial masters in the Second World War, and perhaps even in the first. The veterans of those wars were in no way indemnified. Some were taken back and dumped in their various countries with no hope for the future. Those who decided to stay behind, for instance in England; Tony Blair today calls them immigrants.
Corruption is not an African culture. Africans have been acculturated into it. It has become the major obstacle to economic, social, and political development in Africa. In fact it can be argued that it is the single most inhibiting factor to development in Africa today. Many of our current political leaders who have been acculturated in such a system consciously or unconsciously emulate their former colonial masters. There is a strong speculation that many African political leaders in our times do transfer their nations’ revenues into their personal accounts in foreign banks, something which George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Ghadafi and Cuba’s Castro would never dream of doing.
Corruption has become a fact of life in most African countries so that the basic rights of citizens, for instance, the right to own a Passport cannot be granted unless kickbacks are involved. Privileges such as acquiring a driver’s license are often suppressed.
The advents of foreign businesses in the African economies have made the situation worse. Some of these foreign businesses have successfully co-opted some African political leaders that they set, direct, and control the economic destiny of their host countries. Nkrumah contends that there is no difference between political independence and economic independence. As long some African nations do not brag about political independence.
Apologists of colonialism contend that it is mere naivete to attribute the current problems in African politics to the colonial masters. Some argue that many countries in Africa would have been better off if they were still under the hegemony of the colonial countries. Some contend that during colonialism, the colonial masters were responsible for services like quality education, quality health services, quality roads, etc. Some also believe that we, the Africans, have been cursed by God, and that we would always remain backward and underdeveloped. Still others argue that even when the colonial masters left, there was still taxation without representation in many African countries.
The apologists are entitled to their opinions and their opinions should be highly respected. But to suggest that Africa would have been better off today under colonialism because of quality education or quality health services is an account for the apologist’s naivete to some basic facts. The beneficiaries of quality education or quality health care were not the Africans. Those services were designed to serve the interests of the colonial masters. For instance, it is still true today that in most African countries, when an African and a white foreigner go to a hospital at the same time, the white person’s case will be treated as an emergency. This means that while the African has to wait in a long line for several hours, the white person will immediately receive medical treatment. The colonial educational system was not designed to address African Problems. It was deliberately designed to co-opt the Africans into the colonial masters’ frame of reference.
The apologists also contend that we the Africans are greedy and our greediness manifests itself in some of the major economic policies of some of our political leaders – “take the money and run.” What the apologists fail to discern is that greediness in African politics was a colonial ideology; they took the best of our human and material resources and ran. It is only sad that some of our political leaders perpetuate the same ideology.
The contention that the Africans have been cursed by God is not just a myth, but the apologists’ naivete to the tremendous economic, social, and political curse which the colonial masters imposed on the African people.