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SAY
IT LOUD
-With Benn Ackah |
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Be afraid! Be very afraid.In fact, be enraged, for a man (he is supposed to be a top historian) is calling for the recolonisation of our motherland - Africa.
In the Saturday, January 8 issue of the Daily Mail, Andrew Roberts, obviously incensed by South African President Thabo Mbeki's attack in Sudan of the British Empire's record in Africa, justified in his Saturday Essay why a "New Imperialism" should be vigorously pursued by Britain and the west. He cited so many other pre- colonial and post-independence ills (such as corruption, tyranny, tribal and ethnic wars, HIV/Aids endemic, poverty, etc.,) of the continent to support his argument.
Well, they have called it the Dark Continent, they have called us savages, and they think HIV Aids was started by Africans. They think we are backward. They think we are all genocidal, anarchic and violent. They think our genes are only good for sports (or running long distances). Some wondered if we lived on trees whilst others thought we are less endowed academically. A lot of these are written off as products of curious minds but to call for the recolonisation of Africa is the worse insult we have ever had to endure as beautiful and unsuspecting peoples who have been suffering for far too long.
He thinks most Africans would be enamoured with the idea of recolonisation because the "New Imperialism" would mean more food, gainful employment, property rights, peace and the sort. He should go and say this in the centre of Bulawayo, Kinshasha, Kumasi or Port Harcourt. He can even forget the cities and go to deep places like Ewiabo, Nkulukugu and Mafere with his message and he will never be tolerated. What on earth should trigger a person to suggest such a thing? It is almost like a recall of the Holocust or apartheid in South Africa.
Well, Africa is presently beset with a lot of problems as he knows. We all know the problems as Tony Blair said in 2002. Most of them could arguably be external. In fact, most forward-thinking Africans attribute a lot of these problems to issues within the continent. But I can assure Historian Roberts that it is not because the "white man" left us. As a matter of fact, we will not be left alone. We have never been left alone.
If he would forget about history and look into more recent developments he will understand why Africa finds it difficult to cope. He should only look at World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements or rules and he will realise why we suffer. Where were those rules when the west developed? No one is saying there is no corruption in Africa, like anywhere else. But who corrupts African leaders? I wish he would forget about his history for a moment and read the eminent American Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky.
Trade rule are heavily loaded against the poor. Gordon Brown knows that even cows in the European Union get more subsidies than what most Africans live on in a day. In 2003 EU cows were getting about $3 subsidies a day whiles most Africans struggled to cope with less than a dollar a day. Yet we are told not to help our poor farmers.
Mr. Top Historian, you do not need to recolonise in order to help or play a fair game. You can help by halting unnecessary interference like plotting coups against oil-rich African nations. You can by not stirring violence in places endowed with rich natural mineral resources. You can help by not buying diamonds with blood on them from war-torn areassuch as Sierra Leone and Liberia. You can help by not trading guns for such commodities because this fuels an already explosive situation. You can help by paying fair prices for our products. To be frank, you can help by not feeding your over-indulgence by fleecing away Africans over-abundance.
When Tony Blair said in 2002 that Africa's problems are known, he added that they knew the solution. Sustainable development is not to be misconstrued for "New Imperialism" or recolonisation. Fast-forward your thoughts to modern-day's globalisation, Historian Roberts, and you will stop at nothing short of partnership. What Africa wants now is partnership, respect, empowerment and absolute control over our own destiny. Have you not heard? Do you not think NEPAD or the AU is serious? In fact, the term recolonisation is so 'yesteryear'; even to Africans you might think.
I think that Africa's problems, and there are many, are the problems of the west too. Hopefully, when there is no problem in Africa there west will have no problems too. But that is only Utopian. To minimise the world's problems now is definitely not to recolonise Africa.
To those "Western academics and political thinkers" who are formulating "a genuinely comprehensive, unprecedented and radical solution to the interlocking problems of Third World indebtedness, lawlessness, corruption, starvation, endemic internecine warfare and genocide" if what you are thinking off is indeed Andrew Roberts' recolonisation, then think again. That is purely academic. It is an imprecation!
I reckon Andrew Roberts is only romancing with the idea. If not then tell him to call me John Smith when it is done.
info@africanecho.co.uk
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