To prosper, Africa must be colonized again

The world in entering a period of potential resource scarcity with the west set to scramble to secure future supplies of critical raw materials wherever they will be found. Evidence abounds that Africa is the next frontier for a new global age with wealthiest nation now fully geared for a comeback to Africa and the question only concerns how they are coming. That they will compete for dominance and ultimately partition the continent again is also not in doubt except that with the entry of China and possibly India, the veracity of the competition remains to be seen. The battle for the continents resources will be fierce and brutal. For oil, coal, timber, copper, gold, diamonds, uranium, etc. Don’t doubt.

When in the nineteenth century European imperialist pushed their way into Africa, they were motivated by three main factors; economic, political, and social. It developed following a severe reduction in profitability of slave trade and finally its abolition and suppression, as well as the expansion of the European capitalist industrial revolution. Are the circumstances any different today? Not really. Just look at DRC.

Africa need not put up any resistance this time for if you look at the history of African states since independence, empirical facts indicate that we were more progressive colonized than independent. In fact the greatest decadence, moral decay, widespread poverty and breakdown in law and order has happened after independence and on this, there is no debate.

If civilization is really as it has been described, the most advanced stage of human social development and organization with the elements that constitute it being economic provision, political organization, moral traditions and the pursuit of knowledge, then it is good and Africans were right to pursue and try to adapt to it. But we must also acknowledge that this new order had its tools of administration and required new life skills which we didn’t and seemingly still don’t have.

This has nothing to do with genetic conditions or composition but rather, everything about discovery and the domination of information as a resource which is essential for humans in harnessing nature. Discovery provides the benefit of a new world view and when it progresses into scientific or technological innovations it gives the first mover advantage which usually leads to exclusive expertise which interpreted differently means, dominance.

It is for these reasons that I am justified in believing that for us to progress and prosper once more, we must stop competing and instead accede to two cultures—one, imperial that dominates, and the other, beneficiaries of residual growth and development which if we accept will ensure faster development than that which we experience as sovereign states.

So if we truly yearn for greater opportunity for prosperity and happiness, we must be proactive in unraveling our selfish and irresponsible ways that are surely leading us to destruction and move with speed to pick the nations of our choice and initiate talks on a smooth surrender of our sovereignty for we know not what or how to do in this new order.

Life is a constant presentation of choices that increase in frequency, veracity and gravity and the right choices might accord us some comparative advantage over those that hang on hopelessly only to lose their so called sovereignty.

Perhaps, we need to put some meet to this argument. It was clear by the time we chose to be independent that the imperatives of capitalist industrialization were demand for assured sources of raw materials, the search for guaranteed markets and profitable investment outlets, etc. In about 70 years, they introduced education, large scale farming, mobility through motorized means, the radio, electricity, etc, all of which played a great part in enabling growth and development and this was well established by the time of their exit. Now take a view of Kenya today. Widespread poverty, a huge number of small scale informal farmers, hundreds of thousands of squatters while a few individuals collectively hold hundreds of thousands of acres of idle land. Transport by rail is all but collapsed while commuter transport by road is disorganized and is controlled by extortionist cartels who collude with police and senior government officials fleecing both the investors and commuters. The vehicles themselves can only be described as contraptions of death, and this is common knowledge. No commentary is required to elaborate this point.

Moving on to another point, how relevant are we in the scheme of things? Although GDP has failed to capture some of the factors that make the difference in people’s lives and contribute to their happiness, let us dare to measure Africa’s significance in these terms, in relation to the colonial powers. What we will discover is that many African states are just stubborn deaf, dumb and blind irritants that mysteriously found their way into the table where negotiations were going on. But not for much longer for the sledge hammer has been ordered.

Nations relate on the basis of interests. Interests are managed through negotiations and negotiation has often been described as the art of competitive manipulation. The weaker you are, the more unscrupulous or dexterous the other party will be. Let us use Kenya to illustrate the insignificance of our African states in the scheme of things.

Kenya’s GDP in 2010 was US $35Billion while SA, the superpower of Africa was ten times that of Kenya’s at $383 Billion. The UK, on the other hand was US $ 2.472 trillion. But if you want to know that of the US, $ 15.227 trillion. This point also needs no further commentary.

The folly of our thinking. It is amazing how far creative insanity and toxic imagination could drive us from reality.

What about our natural resources? Africa is endowed with gold, diamonds, uranium all of which we have no use for except to sell secretly to unscrupulous corporations who are in every context merchants of death who engineer and exploit conflict between communities and between countries in order to sustain monopoly in the extraction and exploitation of these minerals. Why should Africans continue to die for resources they don’t need. If these African states would just accept to be colonized, the powerful nations would come and invest and negotiate more openly among themselves and there would be no need for war.

As for Kenya, we must choose whether we want to give back to the British or risk the all authoritarian super power. Or we can take the plunge with China, after all, they have something to prove to the Europeans and an ax to grind with the US and this might just work in our favor.