The African State: Its Colonial Legacy

690 Words3 Pages
The African State: Its Colonial Legacy Summary: Despite decades of conflict, death, and tragedy, coverage of issues in African has often been ignored oversimplified, or excessively focused on limited aspects. Deeper analysis, background and context have often been lacking the root and main causes of the problems in Africa from ethnic conflicts to corruption to poverty. The root of the problem starts from Colonialism. Why did violent and repressive regimes form in the post-colonial Africa? What is the origin of the modern African state? What is the main cause of all ethnic conflicts in Africa? All this can be attributed to colonialism. European colonialism had a devastating impact in Africa. The main premise of this chapter is that the political and economic structures formed under colonial rule have shaped the way for all the sorrow things that African faces today. The Berlin Conference of 1884 laid down the rules on how they would partition African between the European powers in order to prevent conflicts between them. With little or consideration for the ethnic groups in Africa, The colonial masters created artificial boundaries and brought people of different ethnic groups under one state. Groups with traditional rivalries and historical warfare were also brought under one state. The chapter argues these artificial boundaries have created one of the greatest political problems that Africa faced in the post-independence since today. The colonial states often used divide-and rule tactics which was a very skilful tool for suppressing the groups in Africa. On the other hand, a centralized undemocratic political system was established to guarantee the colonial political order. Small number of administrators, elites or merchants had the power in their hands listening to orders of their colonial masters. Africans had very little opportunity to participate in colonial

More about The African State: Its Colonial Legacy

Open Document