The Wages Of Underdevelopment Is Africa’s Scramble For Europe

The nineteenth century became saturated with events and a turning point in the relationship of tropical Africa with the outside world.

It was a century of increasing trade with the outside world and gradual integration into the world economic system, the fight against the slave trade and the growth of Europe’s commercial interest in Africa, research and missionary activity, colonization and resistance.

At the beginning of the century, Africans were dominated in the slave trade that replaced the West and Central Africa and having full political sovereignty on almost the entire subcontinent, firmly held fate in their hands,.

Then the century ended with a fight for Africa and colonial division, those who transferred the definition of the historical fate of African society to a large extent into the hands of European civilizers and trustees.

Between the 1870s and 1900, Africa experienced European imperialist invasion, diplomatic pressures, military invasions, and eventual conquest and colonization. The colonialists are directly or indirectly responsible for many of the problems of the current African countries today.

For example, intertribal hostility, it is known that the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi did not perceive themselves as two different people until the Belgian colonial authorities introduced a population registration system that fixed these concepts as hereditary, and did not rely on Tutsis who were considered racially closer to Europeans.

During colonization, Europeans didn’t strive to provide technologies or develop the continent. In the first place, why did Europeans colonize Africa? Because of the rich resources, therefore, it wasn’t an important issue to develop Africa. They left it untouched and looted its riches abroad.

And after independence swept through Africa, most of the leaders that followed the ‘fathers of independence,’ weren’t also interested to move the continent further, instead, foreign banks became the right place where stolen money is kept.

They say, “Whatever goes around comes around.” Europe is now reaping the bad seeds they sowed in Africa, as the changing human geography in Africa becomes an issue of concern. Africa’s current migration flow towards Europe is now compared to the colonial scramble for Africa.

China is now scrambling for Africa over the continent’s rich resources, while Africa is scrambling for Europe, as growing young middle-class will immigrate to Europe looking for economic prosperity.

Since the 1930s, Africa has seen the most significant population growth, the fastest urban growth, and the largest concentration of young people. As the population booms and young people migrate, Africa is seeing mass rural exodus and urban drift to Europe.

Young Africans, including women, running away from oppressive social structures and seeking a better life in Europe, with many vibrant communities of Afro-Europeans already present, and a growing young middle class attuned to Western popular culture.

The dangers these desperate Africans encounter on high seas don’t mean anything or prevent them from embarking on these dangerous voyages.

According to a migration spokesperson, since 1993, over 27,000 people trying to reach Europe have died, often when the boats capsize. With thousands of orphans in Africa due to Aids and poverty, it’s not certain that Europe is free from migration explosion from Africa.

Europe and America destroyed Africa through slavery, colonization, Apartheid, Aids and now Ebola. They must, therefore, accept the result of the bad seeds they planted in Africa.

Deadly voyage in search of greener pasture in Europe

On September 10, 2018, I read in one of the online newspapers, Nana Akufo Addo, saying, “Stop blaming colonial masters for Africa’s woes.” Nana is not sincere with himself and even might be too busy to read the books Kwame Nkrumah wrote or other writers have written about Africa’s underdevelopment, else he wouldn’t have made such an insignificant statement.

Such African leaders making this type of comments is a way to build a good relationship with foreign powers to continue enjoying their support because it doesn’t make sense to defend people responsible for the misery of Africa. That’s one of the reasons he can’t even speak about Ebola despite the threat Africa faces. Cheap and lazy politics in Africa, indeed.