It's time to let Africa grow up...

If ever anyone needs confirmation of the negative effects of intrusion, just look to Africa and learn a lesson.

I’m sure the original intent of the very first colonial masters in Africa was to carry the message of “civilization”, “Christianity” and “democracy”. They didn’t count on meeting a continent so diverse in culture, it was almost surreal. They didn’t count on landing on a continent with massive amounts of  potential wealth stored underground. They didn’t count on coming upon a land where people mostly lived in peace without the encumbrance of religion and dogma, and couldn’t cared less about material stuff as long as they were happy. They didn’t count on meeting a people so attached to their cultures, it would be virtually impossible to separate one from the other. They probably also didn’t count on meeting black people but that’s beside the point.

And so they came and they brought with them, their greed. The sort of greed so strong the people of the continent were over-powered by it. Realizing the huge potential this continent held for generations yet unborn, they quickly set about milking it of every drop of human blood. If they could only just wish away the people and claim the continent for themselves but that would be impossible or would it?

And so they quickly instituted a human export scheme (they later called it slave-trade), setting in motion what was to culminate in an offspring of this same people emerging as their leader, more than a 200 years later (in 2008), but I digress again. This I dare suggest was done to weaken the people, and give them free access to whatever wealth lay hidden in these lands, but then again they failed to count on one of man’s most important gift – the “will” to survive.

Enough of the poetry.

The slave trade and dehumanization may have ended officially, but the attitude of the West to the African continent and the African people has not changed much at all. Having colonized this people at one time, been their masters and dictated the terms of their existence, it seems the West are yet to give up on the “idea” of superiority. The “idea” that the “white” man is “better” than the “black” man. The “idea” that the black man was made to “serve” the white man. The stupid “idea” that the black man needs charity from the white man to survive. The crazy idea that the black man may not yet have “evolved” enough to think rationally and make responsible decisions or the idea that the West have as much of a right to African resources as the Africans themselves, but not vice versa.

The message here is simple – Stop the strangle-hold and let us be.

This practice of taking our food and making us beg to have a piece of it back, has reached its limit.

Britain in particular needs to show maturity and lead the way in promoting a more independent Africa, as it has been assumed the infamous role chief oppressor over the last God-knows-how-many years.

Its been like this for years now – An African government tries to do what is best for its citizens, tries to make sure its citizens gets served before foreigners, which should be the case and which is the case all over the rest of the world, but the West will hear none of it.

“How can you stop us from drilling your oil, from tilling your lands, from using your lands and your people as a testing ground for all sorts of experimental drugs, from enriching our country with your resources? Eh, how can you?”

They stir up all kinds of hate-campaign against that government, international and local, empowering some rival organization to take up arms against the incumbent. This inadvertently leads to serious violence and untold suffering. While this is going on, the West are “crying” foul against the incumbent government, all the time stoking the fire of War, working the impoverished people into a frenzy, making the people kill themselves un-necessarily.

Then after much “noise-making”, it’s time to go in with some “aid” and “charity” and try to be the good guy, the one who demands an immediate “end” to the suffering of the people, the ones who is eager to draw the attention of the world to “suffering” in Sudan, the “genocide” in xxx and the “Auschwitz” in Zimbabwe (according to the Times of England). The “Auschwitz” they helped create in the first place.

The story continues with “talks” and “counter-talks” and they end up installing a yes-man as the leader of the country, one who will do their bidding, even if that bidding does not really help the people of that country directly (Check, Nigeria). And then they have to “borrow” money to rebuild their “war-torn” countries, growing even more indebted to their western benefactors.

This whole charade repeats itself again after every few years. Check Uganda (Idi-Amin), Nigeria( oil and fighting in the Niger Delta), Togo, South Africa, and now Zimbabwe (Mugabe) among countless others.

It must come to an end, if Africa as a continent is going to see any sustainable development.

For African countries to have a realistic chance of growth and economic prosperity, to be able to empower her millions of citizens who are increasingly deserting their own homes, the West must desist from the failed agendas which have brought untold suffering to the people of that continent.

Africa cannot live on aids and charity. Her people are not stupid. The continent has enough resources and potential to be the richest continent in the world, but it needs to be let alone to grow up and mature. The interference of the west in Africa is only slowing down development in the continent, creating never-ending cycles of brutality, poor leadership and irresponsibility.

Its OK to point to the benefits of Western civilization in Africa, but the price we are paying for that civilization, due to indescribable greed is too heavy a burden on the people of this continent.

It’s time to let go of the strangle-hold on Africa and let this continent grow up and if indeed the West are as eager for development in Africa as they proclaim, now is the time to lead by action and not just empty words.