Africa, A Cry from the Heart

Three stories, however, in the news over recent days and weeks have led me to reflect on just how much suffering does still remain across the continent, and by implication, how much of that can be blamed on European colonialism, Western neo-colonialism and international neglect over many years (not to mention slavery in earlier centuries).

The war in Sudan is the latest example, and one of many wars that are currently being waged in different countries and with different levels of intensity. Just before the Sudan crisis filled our screens, however, there were two other stories that might have gone unnoticed. There was a story from South West Tanzania, a region rich in gold deposits, where unofficial miners are turning to what the report called ‘shamans’ who, in turn are telling them to acquire the blood of virgins, leading to a rash of rapes and murders of young girls in the region. And then, in Kenya, a story of a cult that was encouraging their members to starve themselves to death and the discovery of a significant number of graves, of men, women and children.

It is easy to dismiss all these events as being ‘of Africa’. We retain the imagery and narrative of the ‘dark continent’ and we have heard so much about the wars, the violence, the rape, AIDS, famine etc. etc. from the continent that we have almost come to think of this as just being the way Africa is. The way the news is presented often suggests that there is nothing but unremitting pain and suffering across Africa, and that this is what Africa is. Africa is presented as the product of the nineteenth century, but the product, not of colonialism, but of the savagery and fever that the colonial rulers presented as the image of Africa at the time, and that remains as the fundamental image of Africa today.

All three stories, however, have their roots in the colonial encounter and the damage that was done by the Western (primarily British) powers through the nineteenth century and on into the beginning of the twentieth. Appiah argued in the 1990s that colonialism, at least in Ghana did not really affect the ordinary villager. They continued to live and work much as they had always done, and to relate to the local powers in the same way as pre-Colonial times. This may be true of some areas of the continent. The lasting impact of colonialism, however, has often only become known in some of the horrors at the end of the twentieth century, long after the colonial powers had official left and new independent governments were in charge.

The war in Sudan can be tracked back to the activities of the colonial power (in this case the UK) even if the power at the time was shared with Egypt. The tensions, and the creation and emphasis on tribalism and ethnicity that was exacerbated by colonial governments across the continent, can be seen as the direct root of the current conflict. Likewise, in Tanzania (formally German, but also a British protectorate), the breakdown of society, of social norms and the cultures collected and celebrated by anthropologists, once again has its roots in colonialism. Finally, in Kenya (again British), we see the impact of the missionaries who accompanied the colonial regime. The missions are not directly responsible for contemporary cults, but the initial introduction of Christianity and the multiplication of denominations, churches or, more recently, cults once again has it roots in the colonial period.

The European powers (and their American allies) did nothing at independence to support or enable these countries. Once again, the people of Africa were let down as the continent, under neo-colonialism, was used simply as a source of raw materials. Local economies, built on manufacturing or other industries that added value, were never allowed to emerge. Particular ideologies of international development, and support for dictators (against those who were supported by the Soviet Regime), meant that Africa had little chance to develop. The internal ethnic and personal battles often erupted into coups and/or civil wars. What is happening in Sudan is just the latest in a very long list of such conflicts. The stripping of resources, such as gold, and increasingly with the electronics industry other rare minerals, was also a deliberate policy of the neo-colonial governments, in league with the multi-national mining and extraction companies. There was no real interest in development and no concern for the break down in society that followed. And, in religion, the American pentecostalist and other multi-national churches spread new Gospels that formed the basis for cults such as the one in Kenya with its misplaced responses to the expectation of the final days.

With this horrific history we are now no longer able to do good in any shape or form. Our credibility, as nations, has been lost and no African government, or at least very few, is prepared to trust Western intervention. The continent has turned to China, which continues to be interested only in raw materials and is systematically stripping the continent of its wealth but does not come with the same colonial baggage and continues to offer the grand structural investment that the nations of the continent desire. More recently it is Russians, in the form of the Wagner Group, that national leaders are turning to as they are seen to be more effective at maintaining order, often through brutal means, where the old colonial powers are seen to be too squeamish.

What can we do? I do not have an answer to this, I can only cry. We have made such a mess that the people no longer trust us, or turn to us, and we can see why. There is little we can do, even while we watch China and Russia prevent any further growth. Why is Africa not like the tiger economies of East Asia? There is no good reason, no reason that is inherent in the people, the climate or the available resources. It is their colonial heritage, the damage we in the West have done, even after independence, that accounts for this disparity and this unfairness. It feels as if there is nothing we can do but cry from the heart…