How Colonialism has shaped life in Africa
As memories of pre-colonial freedom drift further way, it becomes ever more difficult to recapture. Despite being “free” from colonial rule, residual scars and shackles continue to hold former colonies back and predominantly account for their underdevelopment and suffering.
A brief history of Colonialism
Prior to the 15th century, historical literature paints Africa as a region of prosperity and wealth. Myriad wealthy and powerful figures existed in Africa, including Mansa Musa who is often referred to as the richest man in history (Hall, 2012), as well as cities such as Timbuktu whose “50,000 residents thrived on the commerce of gold, salt, and slaves” (Zanganeh, 2004).
History portrays Africa as a prosperous region on par with the rest of the world, a stark juxtaposition to the Africa conveyed by today’s literature and media: desperately impoverished and plagued with suffering. Timbuktu, for example, is now referred to as “ancient city of gold turning to dust” (Duval Smith, 2014).
The history of colonialism offers an explanation for this precipitous change.
Beginning in the 15th century, European powers such as Britain, Belgium, France and Portugal effectively took over countries in Africa (See figure 1), enforcing their rule over native populations and running the countries to best suit their own interests; goods were produced to be sent back to local populations (e.g. gold, timber, diamonds ,cocoa and tea) and natives were enslaved and sold on the global slave market. Colonies were effectively factors of production[1]; i.e.
run like an industrial farmer would run his farm.
figure 1: Africa by Colonizing power. source: geopolitical futures.
Through Colonialism, the colonizers were able to advance their own development. Colonies acted like fuel, providing a labor force (which meant colonizing populations could spend more time in education) and goods which were sold on the global market for profit – which was reinvested to aid the growth of manufacturing industries within the lands of the colonizers[2].
Although colonialism was all but ended in the 19th century – it has continued to impact life in former colonies and helps provide an explanation for the divide between the Global North and Global South[3].
By diagnosing the post-colonial condition, one can see that Africa is not necessarily responsible for its own problems, instead the fault lies significantly in colonial rule. A full dissection of the post-colonial condition is beyond the scope of this short essay. Instead, this essay’s goal is to give an insight into some specific issues holding former colonies back and their root in colonial rule by drawing on specific examples in Africa.
Corruption
Corruption is rife throughout former colonies in Africa and is one of the major barriers to these countries’ human and economic development[4].
In a society where ministers are corrupt, state funds only partly end up where they should. The more rife corruption, the more the rich and connected benefit, and the worse off the poor and unconnected become. This happens as governments siphon off funds allocated to public goods and services such as education and healthcare which would otherwise promote economic growth and development. The worse the level of education, the lower the skill level and occupational mobility[5] among a population. As a result, a population is less productive and less attractive to foreign investment – both of which hamper economic growth and development. Moreover, it appears logical that people are less educated, they will be unable to get higher paid jobs and thus be less able to afford a reasonable standard of living[i].
With a poor healthcare system, productivity of population and life expectancy are lower. Workers are less productive because they are more likely to be ill and spend greater period of time unable to work, therefor you see lower GDP[6] figures in post-colonial regions where corruption is rife. Lower life expectancy is a key indication of a lower standard of life and human underdevelopment (United Nations, 2018).
How corruption came about – delving into British Colonial rule
During British colonial rule, the British co-operated with the privileged and elite in their colonies who had an interest in preserving the status quo (Waites, 2014). These elite individuals were appointed gatekeepers: people in charge of imports, taxes, and access to resources. This created a corrupt elite where getting access to resources such as land to build a mine, or a government contract, required access to designated officials.
This system formed a framework that metastasized into the culture of corruption seen today across former British colonies in Africa. One only has to look to the 2017 Gupta state-capture debacle in South Africa where the prominent Gupta family (with ties to former leader Jacob Zuma) had exclusive access to billions of dollars’ worth of Government contracts and even interfered with ministerial appointments (BBC, 2018). It is in part because of this culture of corruption that development, both human and economic, is hampered in former British colonies.
However, it is not fair to argue that as soon as soon as countries became independent they became corrupt. Often, post-independence countries had great aims and began independence well. For example, Robert Mugabe had great aims for Zimbabwe, including establishing world leading health and education sectors (Gaffey , 2017). However, former colonies were thrust into independence and leaders often found themselves ill equipped to lead and allocate resources effectively (Muiu, 2010)[ii]. When former colonies ran into financial difficulties, little meaningful[7] support was offered by former colonizers (Ankomah, 2004) and it became easier for ministers to become corrupt, hence we see such corrupt governments today.
The Development Project
Since the collapse of colonialism, former colonies’ pursuit of human and economic development has been informed by the Neoliberal views[8] taught to them by former rulers. Their goal has essentially been to become as prosperous as their former colonizers (McMichael, 2008), and to do so, they have employed a range of Neoliberal strategies.
These strategies encouraged trading on comparative advantages[9] in primary exports[10] developed under colonialism. The basic premise was that if they did this successfully, they would be able to gain enough revenue to develop other industries and eventually become as developed as former colonizers (McMichael, 2008).
However, these strategies have failed spectacularly, as evidenced by the still huge disparity in the wealth of Africa vs Europe.
Part of the reason for the failure of comparative advantage in primary export led growth is due to the instability of primary commodities[11] on the global market and the continuing decline in terms of trade(Harvey, 2010) [12].[iii]
These strategies are, and always have been, misinformed and therefore destined to fail: they encompassed models[13] that assume internal, linear regression – that is, without the need for colonialism(McMichael, 2008)[iv]. The Global North, having taken a different path, are not equipped to inform development in this way. They developed off the back of colonialism; one can use the analogy of a very muscular man advising someone else about the best exercises to do in the gym – when he has been taking steroids and knows that is the only possible way to get there.
Perhaps the reason for this misinformed advice is that it benefited former colonizers more by maintaining the status quo . By continuing the trade on comparative advantage, former colonies continue to supply former colonizers with much-needed raw materials and do not disrupt their industries by trying to develop their own secondary and tertiary sectors. It is as if colonizers now had free colonies.
The failure of former colonies developing in this way has been exacerbated by protectionist policy in the Global North that makes it almost impossible for new industries from the Global South to compete in the global market.
Social Scars
The civilizing mission
British colonialism lead to the dilution of culture and long standing traditions, with life being lived according to British ideals.
One way in which Britain justified colonization was through the idea of the civilizing mission (Fisher-Tiné, 2005): the narrative that it was the “moral duty” of the British people to bring religion, science, hygiene and technology to their colonies which were underdeveloped and viewed as mundane in comparison. The British believed that they could do a better job ruling their colonies then the colonies could do themselves. This “civilizing mission” was carried out through forcing local people to practice British religion (this often involved forcing natives to renounce commonly held beliefs and neglect long-standing traditions) and through British schools. Schools were taught in English[14], taught British ideals, British science, and British history.
This civilizing mission has shaped society in these former colonies. The most obvious example is the fact that English is the official language in South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania.
From a post-colonial development standpoint, English has in fact been a benefit. English is considered the language of the global economy, so having a population that speaks good English is very attractive to foreign investment and helps foster bilateral relations. Moreover, former British Colonies such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and India now have outstanding education systems. For example, South Africa hosts the University of Cape Town and the University of Witwatersrand, Ranked 1st and 2nd in Africa and 141st and 318th globally respectively (World University Rankings, 2018)
Semi-proletarianism and HIV
In order to solve the Labor problem (getting the native population to supply their labor) the British employed a system called semi-proletarianism. This semi-proletarianism is the root cause to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and high levels of gender inequality seen in former British colonies (Rispel, 2009).
Semi-proletarianism involved taking most of the common land away from local people, but not all of it. By leaving some of the land, native populations were able to remain semi-self-sustainable: they had enough land to partly support the family. Men would have no choice but to go work on farms and thus the British created their Labor force.
It seems the logic behind this was that by allowing native populations to remain semi-self-sustainable, farmers would not have to pay and support whole families; woman and children could just about live off the land.[v]
As a result of men going to work on farms, which they would both live and work on, working men would spend extended periods of time away from the home. These men would have sex with other women around the farm and often contract sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV. During this period, HIV infection rates in rural areas sharply increased as HIV crossed marital barriers and was passed down to new born children. The culminating effect was (and still is) extremely high HIV infection rates among rural populations of former British Colonies (Simelela, 2015) .
Gender Inequality and Racial Divides
With men working away from the household to earn the much-needed income to make up for inability of local populations to fully subsist on their land, strong gender roles were established within these households. Instead of food production and the maintenance of the household being a collective effort, food production, caring for children and maintaining the home all fell on the woman. This is evidenced by strong gender inequality in South Africa and Lesotho. However, the extent to which this is unique to British colonial rule, or colonial rule more generally is arguable. Varying gender roles today are also due to religious beliefs and discrimination in the work place.
As this semi-proletarianism was carried out, the land originally taken away from black native populations was given to white British farmers who would then run the farms. This created a racial divide where the black native population was underpaid and exploited by farm owners who benefited at their expense. From this dynamic emerged a native black population resentful of privilege held by whites at their expense and an entitled white population who viewed the native black population as subservient and uneducated and just there to serve their interests.
Drawing from South Africa, while racial divides are not nearly as stark as during Apartheid, you still see huge divides and racial tensions to this day.
Conclusion
This short essay has given snapshots of the residual effects of colonial rule to articulate that problems in former colonies that have led to the divide in the globalized world are much deeper than they might seem at first glance. While I have barely scratched the surface of post-colonial development, this essay serves as an introduction to the issue.
Corruption, disease, the spectacular failure to develop, and social divides are all rooted in how colonies were ruled. Before former colonies can become truly developed, the proximal scars and shackles left behind by former colonizers have to be addressed – but whose responsibility are they to address? While I have articulated some of the issues, the debate on who should, and how to solve these issues rages on.
Acknowledgements
(1) It only began to learn about colonialism this fall term during my Geography 6 class (International Development). Although only taking up 2/26th of the course material, I became captivated by the lessons and readings on colonialism and its implications in today’s world. I felt as if what I learnt in class was way to brief and by doing this paper I could really examine this initial knowledge more and really give its significant justice. The research and writing of this paper has allowed me to really delve deeper into a topic I will definitely continue to work on.
(2) Daniel Affsprung – Dan was influential to this short essay during the conception of the main ideas. I had all this new found knowledge of post-colonial development but I was very unsure how to frame it. Through two meetings, Dan helped me clarify certain ideas while also advising on structure. It was Dan who suggested the gym-steroid analogy.
(3) Eric Och –Eric, my trusted roommate, was very helpful throughout, giving his opinion and advice as and when I needed it . He also helped me proof read a few of my initial drafts.
Works Cited
John Hall, “Meet Mansa Musa I of Mali – the Richest Human Being in All History | Tuesday 16 October 2012 The Independent.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/meet-mansa-musa-i-of-mali-the-richest-human-being-in-all-history-8213453.html. Date accessed: 11/01/2018
Zanganeh, Lila Azam. “When Timbuktu Was the Paris of Islamic Intellectuals in Africa.” The New York Times, April 24, 2004, sec. Books. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/24/books/when-timbuktu-was-the-paris-of-islamic-intellectuals-in-africa.html. Date accessed: 11/07/2018
Smith, Alex Duval. “Life in Timbuktu: How the Ancient City of Gold Is Slowly Turning to Dust.” The Guardian, September 16, 2014, sec. Cities. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/sep/16/-sp-life-timbuktu-mali-ancient-city-gold-slowly-turning-to-dust. Date accessed: 11/03/2018
“Bernard Waites. South Asia and Africa after Independence: Post-Colonialism in Historical Perspective.” The American Historical Review 119, no. 2 (April 1, 2014): 483–84.
Conor Gaffey On 11/15/17 at 2:12. “How Robert Mugabe Fell from a National Hero to an Economic Tyrant in Zimbabwe.” Newsweek, November 15, 2017. https://www.newsweek.com/robert-mugabe-zimbabwe-president-zimbabwe-coup-712457. Date accessed: 11/7/2018
Harvey, David I., Neil M. Kellard, Jakob B. Madsen, and Mark E. Wohar. “THE PREBISCH-SINGER HYPOTHESIS: FOUR CENTURIES OF EVIDENCE.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 92, no. 2 (2010): 367–77.
Fischer–Tiné, Harald. “Britain’s Other Civilising Mission: Class Prejudice, European ‘Loaferism’ and the Workhouse–System in Colonial India.” The Indian Economic & Social History Review 42, no. 3 (September 1, 2005): 295–338.
United Nations Development Programme “Human Development Index (HDI) | Human Development Reports.” June 2018. http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi.
Coovadia, Hoosen, Rachel Jewkes, Peter Barron, David Sanders, and Diane McIntyre. “Health in South Africa 1: The Health and Health System of South Africa: Historical Roots of Current Public Health Challenges.” The Lancet; London 374, no. 9692 (September 5, 2009): 817–34.
Makroo, RN, M Chowdhry, A Bhatia, B Arora, and NL Rosamma. “The Prevelance of HIV-1 and HIV-2 Among Patients: An 11 Year Experience at a Tertiary Care Centre.” Apollo Medicine 7, no. 3 (September 1, 2010): 185–89.
Rispel, Laetitia, and Jennie Popay. “Confronting Social Exclusion, HIV and Gender Inequalities in South Africa.” Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, no. 81 (2009): 90–100.
Muiu, Mueni wa. “Colonial and Postcolonial State and Development in Africa.” Social Research; New York 77, no. 4 (Winter 2010).
Ankomah, Kofi. Review of Review of IMF and World Bank Sponsored Structural Adjustment Programs in Africa: Ghana’s Experience, Kwadwo Konadu‐Agyemang, by Kwadwo Konadu‐Agyemang. Economic Development and Cultural Change 52, no. 2 (2004): 499–501. https://doi.org/10.1086/380590.
Simelela, Nono, W. D. Francois Venter, Yogan Pillay, and Peter Barron. “A Political and Social History of HIV in South Africa.” Current HIV/AIDS Reports 12, no. 2 (June 1, 2015): 256–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11904-015-0259-7.
[1] Factors of production are inputs into the production process. For example, fuel and machinery are factors of production for a garment manufacturer.
[2] Industries are: Primary(farming), Manufacturing(Factory output), Tertiary(services e.g. tourism and finance) and Quaternary(Research)
[3] The Global North refers to the body of Developed Regions in North America and Europe – most of whom where former colonies. The Global South are the body of underdeveloped countries previously colonized.
[4] Economic development is the growth of an economy seen an increase in GDP and the increased diversity in the structure of the economy (not complete reliance on a single export or industry). Human development is increasing quality of life of a population.
[5] Occupational Mobility is the ability of individuals to work in different jobs throughout an economy. The higher the level of education amongst a population, the higher their occupational mobility. An economy’s output is greatest when their population is most occupationally mobile.
[6] Gross Domestic Product – the total output of an economy. Economic growth is seen by an increase in the GDO of an economy.
[7] While some support was offered, all this support has strict conditions that aided the agenda of former colonizers. No unconditional support was offered (Ankomah, 2004)
[8] Neoliberal defines a right leaning economic school of thought influenced by Adam Smith. Neoliberal economics favours the free market and strong argues against government intervention
[9] Comparative Advantage is the output of a good that you are most efficient at producing relative to other countries.
[10] Primary exports are exports of raw materials i.e. materials straight from the ground like raw diamonds, Oil and cocoa beans
[11] Briefly explain why price instability bad.
[12] Terms of trade is the value of a countries exports relative to the global market.
[13] Such as Rostow’s Five Stages of Economic Growth Model
[14] It’s Ironic that teaching its colonies English was the catalyst to the downfall of British Colonial Rule as populations across colonies could begin to mobilize a resistance.
[i] This a pattern I have picked up from 5 years of studying economics. It appears logical that a population with a lower level of education have less skills to offer and thus are less able to demand higher paid jobs; instead they earn lower paid jobs. This knowledge is not picked up from my reading on colonialism but rather my knowledge of development economics
[ii] This part I picked up largely from speaking to my Mom an Dad about post-colonial development. During the development of my paper while I talked through some of the ideas with my mum – she was quick to mention that South Africa and Zimbabwe had great potential. My Dad knew Zimbabwe and was an important member of the ANC post- apartheid and so he was able to explain how South Africa and Zimbabwe were left largely ill-equipped to develop after independence
[iii] This chain of reasoning comes from my knowledge of the Prebish-Singer model of terms of trade. I have explained it in the footnote.
[iv] I learnt about Rostow’s stages of development in high school and have expanded my knowledge in my Geography 6 class. It seems logical to me that why it does not work is because it does not involve colonialism – this is something I came to understand during my reading.
[v] This is a specific point I learnt in my Geography 6 class