Is Africa Truly Independent?

The independence of Africans is only relevant to the political elite since they are the direct beneficiaries of the so called emancipation they gave the masses. Throughout Africa, the only people who have benefited from the so called independence are politicians and their relatives.

Today, majority of the masses wished that they were still under the colonial masters. For proof just visits the embassies and you would agree with me that almost every individual Ghanaian want to get out; so it is with all Africans. It has been said that if our colonial masters were to come with their ships asking for slaves they would get more than they need and people would fight and kill just to make it into the ships. Today, Africans see their brothers and sisters they sold to their colonial masters as superior then them.

Today Africans are worse off under the rule of our people. The killings that have happened and continue to happen within the past 57 years cannot be compared to what happened under our colonial masters for over 100 years. The disappearances of innocent civilians, detention and murder of political opponents, corruption, 'create loot and share', just name them. Our leaders in connivance with our colonial masters and their alliance have sold all our natural resources to the very people they claimed to have emancipated us from.

Of what significance is our independence when we are still struggling with basic needs such as; electricity, water and food? Here in Ghana, with the help of our chiefs and politicians we have destroyed all our water bodies all in the name of mining. We are not able to feed ourselves not because we do not have the fertile land but because our colonial masters and their alliance have told us that we should not subsidize agricultural products. Something they do in their own countries with compound interest.

They have told us to put embargo on employment and we have succumbed to that with 'joy'. When they say our economies are doing well while the masses are suffering we are happy and use that as yardstick to justify how well we are doing regardless of the lamentations of the masses. Everything that our colonial masters and their alliance tell us we agree and do it with alacrity.

So are we truly independent of the true sense of the WORD INDEPENDENT? We eat, drink, cloth and try hard to speak the way they do; in fact, we cherish and see everything from our colonial masters and their alliance as best while everything of our own is regarded as uncivilised though civilization came from Africa. In wanting to be like them our young men dress half naked, the least said about our ladies the better. Africa, what is wrong with your children?

Perhaps those who fought for independence had a different idea of what they wanted us to be and look like. It appears these new 'guys' have betrayed them.

Everything done by the first president of Ghana has been either sold to our colonial masters and their alliance or shamefully purchased by our leaders- government houses, lands, vehicles, Factories etc. We have looked on for all state property to deteriorate only for our leaders to justify and sell these items at ridiculous prices to themselves and their cronies. As children we hired bicycles from our colleagues; these peers of ours never run at a loss yet we have people with PhD. and several masters, Dr. this Professor that running down state businesses. Even children can make profit from their bicycles business. What a shame.

'OUR INDEPENDENCE IS MEANINGLESS UNLESS IT IS LINKED UP WITH THE TOTAL LIBERATION OF AFRICA'. Dr. Nkrumah

The right thing to say now is that our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total economic liberation of the masses.

Our leaders have stabbed Dr. Nkrumah in the back because they have not followed his words ''…from now on, today, we must change our attitudes and our minds. We must realize that from now on we are no longer a colonial but free and independent people. But also, as I pointed out, that also entails hard work. That new Africa is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all the black man is capable of managing his own affairs. We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations, that we are prepared to lay our foundation - our own African personality''.

Whilst the masses are working hard as directed by Dr. Nkrumah, our leaders are 'creating looting and sharing' the resources with our colonial masters and their alliance. Is it worth being an independent state in Africa?