The Impact of Colonialism on Africa - Case Study Example

Colonialism gave nothing to Africa expect poverty, famine, disease and underdevelopment. Introduction The catastrophes of development that many African nations face have reawakened distinct political theorizing and concerns of scholars. In essence, the poor economic performance and the problems facing African nations remain one of the major puzzles. In reference to Allen and Thomas (2000: 67), the only thing developing in Africa is underdevelopment. For the past three decades, the growth rates of African nations have been negative. In 1980’s, the annual per capita Growth Domestic Product growth was -1.3% and declined to -1.9% in the 1990’s (Allen & Thomas, 2000: 71). The past has been so tragic that the future looks hopeless. Undeniably, the only known fact of African development for the foreseeable future is that underdevelopment and poverty will increase and intensify. The hallmarks of underdevelopment in Africa have been the increase in slums, stagnating agricultural production, widening elite mass gap, increase in diseases, foreign debt, and balance of payments deficit. Underdevelopment scholars have contended that the underemployment of human and natural resources and insufficient development was acquired by African nations as a result of historical circumstances such as colonialism, neo-colonialism and slavery. Colonial history of exploitation and extraction has been attributed the continent’s current status. Boahen (1987: 89) notes that there is no doubt that a huge amount of structural attributes of the process of economic underdevelopment has historical roots that go back to past colonial times. Experimental studies have confirmed that there is a connection between a nation’s past colonial experience and its current level of economic development. According to Cooper (2002: 76), colonization of African nations applied a direct effect on the post-colonial arrays of growth and human and physical capital build-up. This paper will focus on underdevelopment and poverty in Africa providing an account of the ancient roots of Africa’s underdevelopment. It will focus on the period before and during colonialism, and the effects of European colonialism on the development of the region. Africa before Colonialism During the pre-colonial period, African nations had well-established laws, customs, ethics, conventions and rituals, which were particularly effective in resolving issues and conflicts both within and outside the community. These institutions were fruitful in overpowering numerous forms of predatory or rent-seeking behaviour (Boahen, 1987: 91). Rent-seeking behaviours are those acts of exploiting the political process in order to increase one’s wealth or profits. These ancient communities stressed on cooperation among the people within the communities and maintained harmony. Organized warfare among the communities was rare and sometimes hardly happened. Wars would sometimes occur among the pastoral communities and kingdoms. However, numerous diplomacy methods were practiced to reduce wars among the communities. The most common diplomacy forms were marriages, exchange of citizens and alliances. Arbitrators and other diplomats existed in the communities to resolve conflicts between members of the communities (Boahen, 1987: 101-109) Within the societies, political and legal systems, rent seeking was effectively controlled and established. The communities had a formal political system with advanced legal institutions. In this regard, slavery and slave trade was not practiced before European contact (Waites, 1999: 76). Africa during Colonialism The early contact with Europeans had some benefits to Africans. It resulted to increased opportunities for trade and consumption, and the introduction of more efficient production methods and technologies (Cooper, 2002: 62-4). During this period, the Europeans invested heavily towards offering infrastructure such as roads, harbours and railways increasing efficiency of production. Colonialism increased rent seeking since it became much easier and beneficial to engage in rent-seeking behaviour. The contact with Europeans exposed the Africans to more enhanced weaponry. Guns first got to Africa in 1591 and rapidly circulated to the other parts of the continent. Guns were used in wars and spears, bows and arrows were slowly being replaced by musket. By 1730, the gold and slave coasts imported almost 180, 000 guns per year (Havinden & Meredith, 1995: 83). By the late 18th century, the amount of guns imported had more than doubled. This increased the number of guns available to Africans and the slave trade flourished. In essence, the combination of efficient weapons and the market for the sale of slaves permitted Africans to get involved in rent-seeking with unparalleled comfort. During this period, an increase in rent-seeking was attributed to the fact that existing indigenous institutions were eroded (Boahen, 1987: 123). The increased demand for more and more slaves by the Europeans led to the formation of bandit groups in different sections of Africa. Regions that did not have efficient political systems were overtaken by these bandit groups. Overall, the high demand for slaves by the Europeans stunted the long process of socio-economic development in Africa. Additionally, slave trade weakened the domestic institutions by sabotaging the lawfulness and power of African leaders. Cowen and Shenton (1996: 99) note that the particular instruments by which effectual civil societies were emerging among African nations were demolished, as the local chiefs were no longer accountable to the local pre-colonial check institutions. Instead, the Africa leaders were only answerable to the colonial masters. This resulted to the lack of lawfulness and authority to the local leaders. This erosion of the domestic institutions and governments, on the other hand, resulted to increased indulgence in appropriative activities among the people (Allen & Thomas, 2000: 88-92). Increased Extraction from African Nations Before colonialism, the only form of extraction was the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Domestic slave traders in the region profited from the trade. The amount of extraction during this period was reasonable. Between 15th and 19th century, nearly 12 million slaves were traded. Nonetheless, this does not include the number of slaves that died on the journey. It is approximated that nearly 40 percent of the slaves died on their way (Havinden & Meredith, 1995: 119-24). This increased the number slaves traded to nearly 16 million. However, slave trade was ceased in the 18th and 19th century by the European conquest, which commenced with the Berlin conference in 1885 and laid its ground rules for the division of Africa. However, the abolishment of the slave trade did not mean that European extraction would end. This just transformed the forms, shifting from slavery to forced taxation and labour. Because of the manipulative nature of the associations between African employees and European employers, the colonial leaders found that the only way that would make Africans work for them would be coercing them (Havinden & Meredith, 1995: 126). The methods employed to force Africans to enter the work force were land expropriation, forced labour and taxation. Belgian Congo is a classic example of land expropriation. In Belgian Congo, any free land belonged to Belgium. This was after King Leopold II proclaimed in 1885 that any free land in the nation belonged to the Belgian Government (Havinden & Meredith, 1995: 128). Since most of the inhabitants of Congo were peasants who lived by gathering fruits in the wild forests and carried out little cultivation, almost all the land in the region was idle thus constituting free land. This declaration noted that the government had exclusive rights over the ownership of the land together with whatever grew in it and that anyone who would gather fruits from the land would be castigated. In another case, almost 90% of the land in South Africa had been confiscated and was controlled by the European settlers by 1925. In most cases, if the land was not confiscated by the settlers then the chiefs had sold it to the settlers without following native law and without apprehension of the nature of the transaction (Havinden & Meredith, 1995: 132-35). The primary taxes used to exploit Africans were the poll, hut and head taxes. Apart from being a way of obtaining revenues from the Africans, taxes were also used to compel them to extractive employment associations. Normally, the total taxes that had to be paid were equal to a month’s labour and could only be paid in the official colonial currency (Cooper, 2002: 117). Consequently, the native Africans were compelled to enter into deterring work contracts, lasting up to two years, in order to attain the necessary currency required to pay for their taxes. Once a native African got into the contracts, they would not be relieved or breach the contract without severe penalty. For example, the Master and Servant Ordinance of 1913 in Uganda penalized a labourer for breach of the contract by imprisoning the labourer for 6 months or fining them almost 150 shillings, which was almost a year’s salary. Additionally, the Whipping Regulations in Tanganyika required a boy labourer to be whipped 12 strokes if he neglected his duties or left employment before the end of his contract (Havinden & Meredith, 1995: 138-40). The colonial governments also used more direct policies of forced labour. All Africans were required to carry out yearly compulsory labour, particularly on public works projects. This was the labour that was not compensated. The amount of labour that was required varied depending on the colony, but in all cases the amount of labour time required was significant. For example, the Africans in Belgian Congo were required to give 40 hours of labour in a month in gathering rubber for the colonial government. Additionally, Africans in Uganda were required to give 30 days of uncompensated labour to road works per year. In Kenya, the native Africans were required to offer 24 days of free labour, and 60 days of lowly paid labour (Cowen & Shenton, 1996: 213-27). Increased Rent-seeking behaviour Various publications have portrayed the augmented predatory behaviour within Africa after contact with Europeans. The contact with Europeans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonial period deformed the relative returns towards rent-seeking and away from production, resulting to a striking augmentation in rent-seeking actions throughout the continent. Slave trade resulted to retardation of the orderly development and progress of Africa (Havinden & Meredith, 1995: 148-55). The overriding activity of almost everyone in Africa became trade, and a particular and unique kind of trade that did not promote agricultural or industrial development, but which discouraged constructive work. The only lucrative activity that Africans were involved during the 18th century was the purchase of human exports for the slave trade. The entire African society had changed to predatory and robber society, with the traders involved in relentless conflicts and violence and coercion of the members of the society (Cooper, 2002: 167). By the 19th century, most parts of the continent were militarized and many kingdoms rose as a result of the slave trade. This trade increased the eminence of violent groups and societies within the continent. Because of this change from productive to predatory activities, there was a large decline in production observed (Allen & Thomas, 2000: 201). For example, Africans in the Gold coast shifted from search and production of Gold to the search for slaves and involvement in the war in order to furnish the high demand for slaves by the Europeans. This change from the use of labour for the production of Gold and other more productive activities to other less productive activities such as slave trade was witnessed in all parts of Africa (Allen & Thomas, 2000: 212). For example, the production and export of Gold from Mozambique decreased more than half while slave trade increased by more than four times. The Atlantic slave trade also resulted to the institution and enhancement of domestic slavery in various regions within the continent. The domestic merchants, monarchs and war loads that had come up during the external trade quickly changed to domestic slave ownership, controlling huge plantations where the domestic slaves worked. An exploitative African leisure class developed and survived on the hand-crafted and agricultural products produced by the enslaved Africans (Havinden & Meredith, 1995: 156). During the colonial period, predatory behaviour still persisted among the Africans. During that period, the Africans were involved in working together with the colonial authorities as a rent-seeking behaviour (Allen & Thomas, 2000: 179). In the Kenya, for example, some of the native Africans decided to work for foreign settlers in order to assist them with the taxation of the other native Africans. These native Africans ‘sentinels’ were armed and stationed in the farms to ensure that the other Africans gathered their portion of the rubber. These ‘sentinels’ soon started abusing their authority and established themselves as dictators with an army of soldiers that robbed people their food and women (Cowen & Shenton, 1996: 234). Conclusion This paper has made efforts to shed light on the lasting effects of European contact on African nations. It has offered an explanation for Africa’s persistent economic stagnation, corruption, famine and underdevelopment. This paper proposes that colonialism has had and continues to have a persistent effect on the economic development of former colonies in Africa. Prior to colonialism, societies in Africa had stable rent-seeking behaviours that only focused on productive activities. Following contact with Europeans, the societies were destabilized through the excessive extraction and exploitation, leading to a high rent-seeking behaviour. Even after period of colonialism ended, the past effects of extraction and exploitation are still felt, because the society has been eternally shifted to a new state typified by high levels of sent-seeking, corruption, famine, diseases and underdevelopment. References Allen, T., & Thomas, A. 2000. Poverty and development into the 21st century. Oxford: Open University in association with Oxford University Press. Boahen, A. A. 1987. African perspectives on colonialism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Cooper, F. 2002. Africa since 1940: The past of the present. Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press. Cowen, M., & Shenton, R. W. 1996. Development doctrine in Africa the case of Kenya. In Doctrines of development. London: Routledge. Havinden, M. A., & Meredith, D. 1995. Colonialism and development: Britain and its tropical colonies. Routledge. Waites, B. 1999. Europe and the Third World: From colonisation to decolonisation, c. 1500-1998. New York: St. Martins Press. Read More