As an African, one is born into a world where their
conception of the state of affairs and their view on the global society is
quite unnatural. The ordinary African is born into a society where poverty and
want is the order of the day. It is a fact that the ordinary African
experiences inadequate food, shelter and clothing. It goes without saying that
Africans find themselves in a world that offers them nothing but ignorance and
disease. But perhaps most saddening is the fact that the ordinary African is
born into a world that places him at the very bottom of human society, that
despises and mocks him for his misfortunes, physical appearance and his sorry
state of affairs.
The human mind is designed to find answers where there are
questions, and no doubt the people of African descent everywhere have numerous
questions in the back of their minds as to whichever ‘curse’ that befell them,
its origin and the possibility of a way out. Foremost, Africans need to be
acquainted with their history. It might come as a surprise to many, but the
history of Africa is not marred with the hunger, poverty and disease of today.
It has no trace of racial discrimination. Ancient Africa was neither corrupt
nor inefficient. The old African society was neither filled with want nor
misery. Historian Basil Davidson, deducing evidence from authentic records of
the time, describes the East Coast of Africa as found out by Portuguese
explorer Vasco da Gama;
‘They anchored in
havens that were thick with ocean shipping. They went ashore to cities as fine
as all but a few they could have known in Europe. They watched a flourishing
maritime trade in gold and iron and ivory and tortoiseshell, beads and copper
and cotton cloth, slaves and porcelain; and saw that they had stumbled on a
world of commerce even larger, and perhaps wealthier, than anything that Europe
knew.’
-BASIL DAVIDSON: OLD
AFRICA REDISCOVERED, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1959, pg 165
African society, evidently, was a society of abundance. The
African civilizations, from Egypt, Nubia and Abyssynia in the North East to
Mali, Songhay, Ghana, Kanem-Bornu, Oyo and Benin in the west were full of
wealth and high living standards. Traditionally, therefore, Africa has been a
land of riches and comfort, and the poverty and destitution of today is but a
strange and unnatural phenomenon. But what happened? How did Africa find itself
fallen from grace to grass? How did majority of the African population find
itself relegated from a position of riches and abundance to become the laughing
stock of the entire world?
To answer this question, one has to be acquainted with the
economic history of Africa in relation to the political economy of the entire
world. Somewhere, in the midst of Africa’s relative peace and tranquility,
contacts were established with the outside world. The east coast of Africa was
already enjoying a flourishing trade with visitors from the Middle East and the
Far East, and its economy was booming. The Trans-Sahara trade, between the
people of West Africa and North Africa, was promoting the living standards of
the respective participants. The emergence of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,
however, marked a new chapter in the history of Africa. Millions of human
beings, captured by slave dealers, were sold into captivity in order to work in
the mines and plantations of the Americas.
It is critical to note the strategic significance of the
slave trade in the global economic and political development, and its
connection with the problems that Africa faces today. Merchants were emerging
in Europe, dealing in trading activities throughout the world. The economy of
Europe, it is safe to say, was becoming increasingly in the control of these
merchants, and slowly the feudal system of governance was losing its grip. For
the merchants, the slave trade provided them with huge profits, as the slaves
were sold to the American slave owners while products such as cotton, sugar,
tobacco and various minerals were shipped to Europe. The economy of Europe,
therefore, was booming to the extreme, all at the expense of Africa. The
significance of this trade is that it provided the base and sowed the seeds for
the growth of capitalism as the new economic system. Wrote Marx;
‘The discovery of gold
and silver in America, the expatriation, enslavement and entombment in mines of
the indigenous population of that continent, the beginnings of the conquest and plunder of India, the
conversion of Africa into a preserve for the commercial hunting of blackskins,
are all things which characterize the dawn of the era of capitalist production.
These idyllic proceedings are the chief moments of primitive accumulation.’
-KARL MARX; CAPITAL,
VOL 1, chapter 31
‘Primitive accumulation’ here means the first large scale
collection of wealth needed to speed up the development towards capitalism.
Thus, slavery led to the development of capitalism, and through the
exploitation of slaves the system of exploitation of labour by capital began.
The losses suffered to the people of Africa were, needless
to mention, immense. Whole villages were wiped out. Africa literally lost about
half of its entire population throughout the slave trade period. By
depopulating Africa of its most productive members of the society, the slave
trade stalled the economic development of the continent. Up to now, the
potentialities of the African people continue to be restricted because of this
vice.
Meanwhile, in the feudal empires of Europe, the profits
obtained from the slave trade and the labour of slaves in mines and industries
enabled the establishment and development of industries. Gradually, the
economies of the advanced countries of Europe, such as Britain and France,
became more and more oriented towards industrial production rather than slave
trade and slave labour. The enormous wealth amassed by Europe also enabled
great leaps to be made in the field of science and technology; innovation and
discovery was everywhere. Naturally, the economic production, the systems of
transport and communication, the art of warfare and generally the spirit of
modernization boomed all across the advanced countries of Europe at a pace
unprecedented in history.
With this boom in economic production and industrialization,
the industrialists of Europe; the capitalists, found it unnecessary to keep
trading in slaves. It would be more economically viable, they correctly
reasoned, to ‘buy workers’ in a free labour market. Slavery as an institution
thus had to be abolished in order to provide wage labourers to these industrial
capitalists whose influence had now spread throughout the world. The entire
world was now entering a more advanced phase in political economy. The economic
system of the world was now firmly in the hands of big industrialists;
capitalists dealing with the manufacture and processing of raw materials for
sale and use throughout the world.
As a human body needs food, so does an industry need raw
materials. More precisely, fuel is to a car what market is to an industrial
capitalist. Markets in Europe were becoming increasingly saturated. The so called
‘free competition’ was turning into a monopoly centered around a few
capitalists. This, according to social scientist Leo Huberman, meant a
tremendous development of the total resources of the society (productive
forces) so that the industries could produce more goods than could be consumed.
Consequently, the industrialists had to look for new markets, in order to
ensure that their industries remained profitable. Failure to do this would
create a near-total collapse of the industrial system.
Jules Ferry, French Prime Minister, mentioned in 1885;
‘What our big
industries lack… what they increasingly need are markets. Why? Because …
Germany is fencing itself with tariff walls… because across the Atlantic the
United States has turned protectionist in the extreme.’
-THE STRUGGLE FOR
AFRICA, pg 12. MAI PALMERG (Editor)
Quite clearly, there was only one question among the
capitalists; the businessmen of the day, the question of markets. Everything
had to be done to secure them, at whatever cost. It is with this desperation
that Europe began its merciless and brutal scramble for colonies in Africa and
other areas of the world. Colonies, they correctly reasoned, would provide raw
materials for their industries back home. More importantly, they would provide
the adequate market for their industrial products. Jules Ferry further gave the
dominant reasons for the European quest for colonies in Africa;
‘Is it not clear that
the great states of modern Europe, the moment their industrial power is
founded, are confronted with an immense and difficult problem, which is the
basis of industrial life, the very condition of existence – the question of
markets? Have you not seen the great industrial nations one by one arrive at a
colonial policy? And can we say that this colonial policy is a luxury for
modern nations? Not at all, gentlemen, this policy is, for all of us, a
necessity, like the market itself… Colonies are for rich countries one of the
most lucrative methods of investing capital… I say that France, which is
glutted with capital, and which has exported considerable quantities, has an
interest in looking at this side of the colonial question. It is the same as
that of outlets for our manufacture… European consumption is saturated, it is
necessary to raise new masses of consumers in other parts of the globe, else we
shall put modern society into bankruptcy and prepare for the dawn of the
twentieth century a cataclysmic social liquidation of which we cannot calculate
the consequences.’
-AFRICA MUST UNITE,
pg 20-21. KWAME NKRUMAH
Thus, having come from slavery into booming
industrialization, the European capitalists now had to delve into colonialism
as the next frontier of revenue and profits. Capitalism, having been bred by
the profits of slavery, was now moving into the next level, that of
colonialism. With this, it would be possible to exploit not only the labour and
resources of its own country, but also those of the entire world. This was the
dawn of imperialism.
The colonial pattern of economics is needless to mention.
The main objective of colonialists was to exploit the colonies thoroughly, and
every effort was made to orient the economies of Africa to serve those of
Europe. Locally acquired raw materials were shipped to Europe to feed her
industries. There was no intention of processing or manufacturing them locally.
This was to prevent the colonies from being industrialized and competing
directly with the industrialized economies of Europe. In many colonies, the
economy was made to specialize in specific cash crops, such as coffee and tea
in Kenya, cocoa in Ghana and Ivory Coast, tobacco in Zimbabwe and Malawi and so
on. Such industries were to be exported raw and processed in the industries of
Europe, only to be shipped back to Africa as finished goods fetching a high
price. The economies of Africa were thus made to be mere appendages of the
economies of Europe, feeding their industries with raw materials, and consuming
their finished products. The situation goes on today; our balance of payments
deficits are appalling. Through this economic situation, the African worker and
farmer feeds the economies of Europe with his labour power, and gets nothing
but peanuts, not to mention ridicule and discrimination.
With the end colonialism and the granting of independence,
the system has hardly changed. The Europeans and Americans successfully created
an elite of African leaders and businessmen with whom they maintain their
stranglehold of the continent. As Africans, we have traitors within our midst,
who, jointly with foreign capitalists – people who have continually exploited
Africa from slavery to colonialism and now neocolonialism – exploit the labour
and resources of Africa for their private gain. The African ruling elite,
instead of leading the struggle against imperialism, foreign domination and
exploitation in all its forms, consciously collaborates with the exploiters in
order to maintain the system of exploitation which has kept us underdeveloped
and destitute.
Africa has had to endure centuries of oppression and
exploitation, from the period of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade through
colonialism. The modern form of exploitation is neocolonialism, whereby our
continent is outwardly free and politically independent, but our economy is
firmly in the control of the same foreign capitalists who have exploited us for
centuries. This, of course, through collaboration with their local agents.
Kwame Nkrumah describes neocolonialism as the worst form of imperialism, as it
involves exploitation without remorse, and oppression without responsibility.
Further, he describes it as the last form of imperialism, the point at which
imperialism has developed to its most advanced stage.
A look into the economy of Africa, and generally the world, would
tell it all; our economies are run and dominated by huge multinational
corporations, giant trusts and monopoly combines, based in the developed
countries of the North. The economies that exist in countries, though seemingly
wield administrative power and influence, are nothing but mere puppets of these
corporates, and are firmly in their control. The real determinants of
government policy are the bourgeoisie proper, the owners and managers of these
firms. According to Vladimir Lenin;
‘Imperialism is
capitalism at that stage of development in which the domination of monopoly and
finance capital has taken shape, in which the export of capital has gained
pronounced importance, in the division of the world by international trusts has
begun, and in which the partition of all the territory of the earth by the
greatest capitalist countries has been completed.’
-LENIN; IMPERIALISM,
THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM
Thus, at this point in the 21st century, we find
ourselves with an economy that is oriented towards providing raw materials for
European, American and Asian industries, while consuming their manufactured
goods. Our economy is dominated by Coca Cola, BAT, Old Mutual, Barclays, Tullow
Oil, De Beers, Union Miniere, Shell, KFC, WU-YI and other multinational
corporations ploughing huge profits from our continent.
These in addition to the ‘development aid’ that we keep
receiving from IMF, World Bank and donor countries, which tie us to forever
working to clear them in vain. This in addition to economic policies set by the
IMF and World Bank, such as the Structural Adjustment programmes, also known as
the Washington consensus, outrightly geared towards impoverishing the people of
Africa and the South. As a wave of neoliberalism in economic policy was kicking
in, the IMF prescribed the SAPs to African Sthe conditions included the
introduction of VAT for essential commodities, increase in food prices,
privatization of public corporations, devaluation of local currencies, cutting
of wages and decrementing domestic credit. Further, the governments were
required to liberalize the market and enhance the rights of foreign investors,
to facilitate Foreign Direct Investment.
The result was massive retrenchment of workers, decrease in
the quality of life due to increase in the price of commodities and increase in
poverty. Africa suffered massive food shortages, and millions starved to death.
The difference between the rich and the poor skyrocketed. Most of these
policies are in effect up to today, ensuring that Africans are robbed of
everything they worked for, leaving them in abject poverty. Africans continue
to starve to death. African leaders continue to work with foreign capitalists
to facilitate this exploitation.
Clearly, the questions besettling majority of Africans should
by now be finding their solutions. Africa is poor and underdeveloped; fact. By
why? We have undergone centuries of exploitation and plundering of our
resources, both human and natural, for centuries. Slavery, we have seen, robbed
us of our manpower and destroyed our economic potential. Colonialism robbed us
of our raw materials and reaped the fruits of our labour. Neocolonialism
continues to rob our resources, suck our labour power and dictate our economic
policy. But more importantly, it is clearly that slavery facilitated the
development of capitalism as a mode of production. It is this capitalism,
thence, that forced the establishment of colonialism when the markets of Europe
were saturated. It is this very capitalism, as a mode of production, that bears
neocolonialism, which continue to plunder our continent on a daily basis.
Thus, the source of
our poverty, the source of our underdevelopment, the cause of our destitution,
our hunger and disease on a massive scale, lies in capitalism.
Hence, the solution to our poverty, the solution to our
underdevelopment, the solution to our poverty, our hunger and disease on a
massive scale, lies in the overthrow of capitalism.
it might be true
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